Page 34: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 15, 1970)

1970 State-Of-The-Art Seminars Describe

Marine Steam Powerplants

General Electric And Babcock & Wilcox Sponsored Seven Seminars

Around The World Describing The Advances Made In Steam Powerplants

And The Ability To Provide 200,000 SHP Plants For Ships Now.

Seven state-of-the-art seminars on marine steam powerplants were held recently in the

United States and in Europe by General Elec- tric Company and The Babcock & Wilcox

Company. Over 700 shipbuilders, operators, owners, marine engineers and naval architects attended these seminars.

The day-long seminars took place in New

Orleans; Washington, D.C.; New York City;

San Francisco; Oslo, Norway; Bremen, Ger- many, and London. Sponsors were the Power

Generation Division's Marine Department of

B&W, Barberton, Ohio, and the Marine Tur- bine and Gear Department of GE, West Lynn,

Mass.

The seminars were opened by H.W. Ogilvie, manager of marketing for GE's Marine Tur- bine and Gear Department who discussed the worldwide marketing of steam-propulsion equipment and R.E. Whitam, manager, Ma- rine Department, B&W. Other GE Marine

Turbine and Gear Department people making key presentations were E.C. Rohde, manager of engineering, who reviewed the state-of-the- art of marine steam plants; M.A. Prohl, man- ager of turbine engineering, who spoke on ma- rine steam turbine engineering; N.A. Smith, manager of marine and naval gearing, who re- viewed the latest developments in gearing;

R.O. Butcher, manager of propulsion systems development, whose topic was steam piping systems; H.C.K. Spears, manager of marine propulsion systems, who described steam pow- erplant applications, and R.T. Simpson, man- ager of market research and marketing ad- ministration, who discussed the economics of marine steam propulsion. Also taking part was

GE's Mechanical Drive Turbine Department,

Fitchburg, Mass.

R. Schoen III, assistant chief engineer, B&W

Marine Department, reviewed the state-of-the- art in boilers for marine uses, and R.E. Whi- tam, manager, B&W Marine Department, dis- cussed reliability and availability of modern marine boilers.

Contributing technical papers were presented by R.F. Paashaus, Worthington Pump Inter- national, who talked on the application of pumps to marine propulsion and feed systems;

M.G. O'Harra, engineer, Bailey Meter, who spoke on combustion control and feedwater regulator control as applied to marine boilers;

C.L. Bradshaw, power industry specialist,

Rockwell Manufacturing, who spoke on valves and their application in marine steam power- plants, and J.E. Westberg, president, and B.

W. Seille of Bull & Roberts, who talked about boiler feedwater chemistry.

The day-long seminars were moderated in the United States by F.P. Eisenbiegler, man- ager of domestic marine sales, GE Marine Tur- bine and Gear Department, and E.A. Catlin, marine sales, B&W. R.H. Kiefer, manager of export marine sales, from the same GE de- partment, moderated the seminars abroad.

Among the points discussed in the sessions were: 1. The trend toward higher ship powers up to 200,000 hp for high-speed containerships and

Arctic-service tankers. 2. The ease and simplicity with which steam propulsion systems can be automated. 3. The elimination of potential pollution hazards due to the ability of steam plant burn- ers to handle large amounts of water in the disposal of tank-cleaning residues. 4. The full-scale testing of gear teeth to de- termine the actual performance of new materi- als under conditions comparable to actual serv- ice. 5. The capability of geared steam turbine plants to transmit rated power at very low propeller rpm and to cope with frequent re- versals which make it a natural application for the propulsion of the new breed of Arctic- service ships such as tankers and bulk carriers.

Mr. Rohde gave an overall view of the steam propulsion plant in which he outlined the prob- lems and requirements of the marine industry for reliable power. In concluding his remarks, he said, "At the present time we see an ac- celerating trend towards much higher propul- sion powers. You might legitimately be con- cerned about a degradation of reliability as these powers increase. Truthfully, as propul- sion powers have doubled, within our memory, we can find no evidence of degradation in reli- ability. Quite the contrary seems to be true.

As we look to capabilities up to and beyond 100,000 hp, we have found no state-of-the-art barriers. As support for this, we note that the electrical power-generation steam industry has gone well beyond capabilities considered for ships—up to about 270,000 hp. Only above that do we find an intimation of a state-of-the-art threshold. This point is well beyond probable marine applications."

Steam Turbines

Mr. Prohl reviewed the current trends in steam turbine design and construction. "It became apparent," he said, "that the tur- bine designs which had been developed to cov- er power levels up to 40,000 to 45,000 hp would not be sufficient to meet the rapidly expand- ing requirements of the marine industry. Work was then initiated and has been carried for- ward on a new series of higher horsepower turbines covering the range from 45,C)00 to 120,000 hp. "Two basic sizes of high-pressure turbines cover the power range, the smaller size han- dling powers from 45,000 hp to 70,000 hp and the larger size handling powers from 70,000 hp to 120,000 hp. For each of the two power ranges, designs for both non-reheat and reheat cycles are provided."

Three low-pressure turbine frame sizes are involved, the author stated, and by properly combining these high-pressure and low-pres-

INFORMAL GET-TOGETHER at one of seven General Electric-Babcock & Wilcox state- of-the-art seminars include, left to right, J.J. Kleschick, GE Marine & Defense facilities

Sales Operation; L.R. O'Hearne, Mobil Oil Corp.; G.C. Swensson, Marine design engineer,

Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., and E.A. Catlin, Marine Department, Babcock & Wilcox.

The seminars were held throughout Europe and the United States.

BETWEEN SESSIONS at steam powerplant seminar in New York, foursome getting to- gether included, left to right, F.P. Eisenbiegler, manager of domestic marine sales, GE

Marine Turbine & Gear Dept.; H.R. Glennon Jr., president, Commercial Steamship Co.;

J.A. Obermeyer, Texaco, Inc., and H.W. Ogilvie, manager of marketing, GE Marine

Turbine & Gear Dept. 36 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News