"It wasn't until 1975, when Oceaneering acquired DHB Construction and garnered the exclusive rights to the application of JIM suits in the oilfields, that JIM became successful. In 1976 the JIM suit was used for a series of four dives on PanArtic's Hecla M25 well. The dives were made through a h*** cut in an ice floe 16 feet (5m) thick, on which the rig was positioned.

The first dive, made by Walt Thompson of Oceaneering, set a record for the longest working dive below 490 feet (149m). It lasted five hours and 59 minutes at a depth of 905 feet (275m). The Arctic dives proved that JIM was capable of performing oilfield operations in very cold and very deep water. Average water temperature at the wellhead was measured at 29 degrees F, while the average internal suit temperature was about 50 degrees F. The operators simply wore a heavy wool sweater for thermal protection. The following year the JIM suit was used on over 35 jobs with an average duration of over two hours and depths varying from 300 to 1,130 feet (300 to 394m). By 1981 there were 19 JIM suits in existence.

The first JIM suits were cast of magnesium because of its high strength-to-weight ratio and weighed around 1,100 pounds in air (including the diver). The corrosion problems with magnesium were averted by careful surface preparation and coating. The suit had an in-water weight of 15 to 50 pounds negative buoyancy. Ballast was attached to the front of the suit, and could be jettisoned from within, propelling the operator to the surface at approximately 100 feet (30m) per minute.

The suit also included a communication link and jettisonable umbilical. The original JIM suit had eight of the annular oil-supported universal joints, one in each shoulder and lower arm, and one at each hip and knee.

Eventually, the magnesium casting was replaced with fiberglass construction and the single joints evolved into many segmented joints, individually allowing only seven degrees of motion, but when added together, giving the operator a greater range of motion. Additionally, the four-port dome was replaced by a transparent acrylic one that allowed the operator a much-improved field of vision. The fiberglass suit was known as the JAM suit. A lighter more anthropomorphic suit was built of aluminum or glass-reinforced plastic, and was known as the SAM suit. The aluminum model was rated to 1,000 feet (300m) and the fiberglass suit was rated to 2,000 feet (610m).

Every technology has a defining point when it becomes wholly viable to the market it wishes to serve. For the atmospheric diving suit, the JIM suit was that point. During no period prior to JIM was the atmospheric diving suit used as extensively or successfully as a means of underwater intervention. The suit was the basis of a new generation of suits that would prove their worth for many years in the oil industry and elsewhere. Rightfully so, there has probably been more written about the JIM suit than any other atmospheric diving suit developed. There are several versions of the JIM suit on display at museums throughout the U.S. and the U.K."