Protection & Life Support

Creare develops technologies for protecting and supporting human life in challenging environments ranging from the battlefield to space to undersea. Our work includes conception and prototyping of innovative devices, development and application of unique modeling software, and design and operation of unique experimental facilities for testing of protective and life support equipment.

For protecting military personnel from chemical/biological threats, Creare has developed specialized technologies for evaluating protective garments and individual protective equipment. On the modeling side, our Fabric, PFSM, and MAPP software provide powerful capabilities for simulating material and garment performance, including agent penetration and transport and thermal impacts under widely varying threat and environmental conditions. Experimentally, we have developed innovative swatch test cells for fabric evaluation and unique wind tunnel-based facilities for testing clothing subsystems and closures including the effects of body motion and wind for vapor, liquid, and aerosol challenges.

Creare has developed a range of innovative devices for managing the thermal environment for individuals enclosed in spacesuits, hazmat gear, or military protective equipment. We have demonstrated high-efficiency miniature blowers for supplying filtered air, lightweight personal water chillers for providing cooled drinking water in desert conditions, and novel compact refrigeration devices for controlling the temperature and humidity inside space suits or military protective gear.

Creare has also developed equipment for supplying breath air in environments hostile to human life. We have built high-performance electromechanical regulators for firefighters as well as rebreather systems for use in aircraft at high altitude. Our work extends to undersea environments where we have designed innovative physiological monitoring devices for divers.

When addressing protection and life support projects, Creare engineers combine a deep fundamental understanding of the technology with an understanding of the key physiological mechanisms to develop solutions that fully respond to the need, and we often collaborate with leading experts in areas such as aerospace or undersea medicine.