I Tried to Move the Valve. It Didn’t Go Well.

Here is my Lab, it's nothing fancy. Just a table, tools, and a PFD I was fully prepared to destroy.

By this point I’d already proven the basic flotation concept. IRV could work in the water. The next step was Version 2

— integrating the inflation system into the rash vest in a way that was actually usable.

That meant a new PFD, and a whole new set of problems.

 

The Problem

The red tube position is terrible.

It sits up near the shoulder, and no matter how I tried to route it, it just wanted to kink. The geometry was wrong from the start.

Even if I could manage the bend, I was still forcing too much routing down the front of the rash vest

— creating bulk exactly where I didn’t want it.

So I had two issues:

• bad valve position
• too much tube wanting to live at the front

That was enough to seriously consider moving the flange.

It Looked Possible

Looking closely, it seemed like the flange was only bonded to the top layer.

That’s the kind of detail that makes you think it might actually be worth testing properly.

So I bought a sacrificial PFD and committed to finding out.

 

First Attempt — Reality Check

My first thought was to cut through the TPU and peel the flange off.

That didn’t happen.

The TPU and flange were far too fused together for that to work cleanly. That idea was gone pretty quickly.

 

Finding a Way In

Next move — inflate the bladder before cutting.

Not for visibility, but for control. Inflating it separated the top and bottom layers, giving me a way to cut without damaging the base.

That changed the approach completely.

 

First Real Win

Flange out. Clean cut. No damage underneath.

That was the first proper win.

At that point, moving the valve actually looked possible.

 

Commit Harder

Working from the outside was making things harder than they needed to be.

So I opened a seam and went in from the inside.

That gave me proper access and made it much easier to position the tube where I wanted it.

 

The New Position

With access inside the bladder, I repositioned the tube into a new hole lower down.

Visually, it looked right.

It made far more sense for how the system needed to work.

 

The Part That Killed It

The real problem was always going to be sealing it.

I tried seam tape and heat, but I couldn’t get a bond strong enough to trust. The flange wouldn’t sit securely,

and if that part isn’t reliable, the whole thing is pointless.

So that was the end of that path.

Abort mission.

 

What It Gave Me

Even though moving the flange failed, it wasn’t wasted.

It forced me to look at the routing problem properly.

If moving the valve wasn’t worth the risk, the only option left was to work with what I had and find a better way.

That’s what led to the rerouting idea that came next.

 

Final Thought

This part of the build didn’t give me the result I wanted.

But it narrowed the path.

And sometimes that’s just as valuable.

 

Next Step

Work with the existing valve position, rethink the routing, and build the loop system around what the prototype is actually doing

— not what I wish it was doing.