The documents of this collection are the property of COMEX SAS. They have been entrusted to the ORPHY laboratory, which scanned and uploaded it.

COMEX (Compagnie Maritime d’Expertises), established in 1962, has positioned itself in the offshore activities sector, where it held a leading international position, becoming the world's foremost company in engineering, technology, and human or robotic underwater interventions. Comex designed a Hyperbaric Testing Center in 1969 and developed its own research programs on various breathing mixtures used in deep-sea diving (helium and later hydrogen). These research efforts led to spectacular advancements in this field, including several world records, both in real conditions and simulations. Comex still holds the world record at -701 meters, achieved in its chambers during Operation HYDRA 10.

The ORPHY laboratory focuses on major physiological functions, their regulation, interactions, and their contribution to the development and prevention of certain pathologies. The primary mechanisms studied involve metabolic aspects (oxygen transport and utilization, energetics, etc.) and electrophysiological aspects (contractility and excitability), mainly related to respiratory, vascular, and/or muscular functions. These mechanisms are studied under various physiological and physiopathological conditions, ranging from the cellular and subcellular levels to the entire organism. In Europe, the ORPHY laboratory is one of the leaders in hyperbaric physiology and diving research.

Being a major player in innovation and expertise in the field of pressure, COMEX maintains a scientific archive from its experimental diving campaigns. The value of this archive is both scientific and historical, as it documents a remarkable chapter in the history of marine exploration and contains results obtained during dives that are very unlikely to be replicated in the future.