Abstract
A oxygen generating closed-circuit SCBA for escape from fire will be newly developed and then a program for estimating service time for it should be required. A SCBA made on an experimental basis consisted of five components such as half facepiece (mask), $KO_2$ box, oxygen reservoir, $CO_2$ remover and hood. The half mask had a good fitting performance since fit factors for 10 subjects were all above 100. It was found that height of subjects should be the best variable to estimate service time. Measured service time was inversely correlated with height of subjects. Service life time could be estimated by interpolation and extrapolation using inverse relationship between height and measured service time, for example, 28 minutes for male and female of 170 cm during resting, 10 minutes at the walk of 4 km/h and 5 minutes at the walk of 6 km/h considering safety margin of 20%. The study implies that program for estimating service time for the SCBA should require subject's height, speed of walk (4 km/h and 6 km/h) and fit testing. Considering safety margin, selecting younger subjects would be better. The study on the number of subjects and selecting facial dimensions should be more needed for the final program.
