Page 34: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2006)

34 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

GE Diesel Replaces Steam Turbine on Freighter

A new GE 7FDM medium-speed diesel engine recently replaced an existing steam turbine propulsion system to power Voyageur Marine Transport's

Voyageur Independent straight-deck bulk freighter.

The 16-cylinder engine provides 4,100 hp for this ves- sel, which is owned by Voyageur Marine Transport

Limited, Ridgeville, Ontario, Canada. Voyageur

Marine Transport's 642-ft. freighter underwent an extensive re-fit in the Port of Hamilton, Ontario,

Canada. The Voyageur Independent, with the GE diesel engine, started successful operations on

November 19, 2005, carrying mainly agricultural bulk products throughout the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence

Seaway system. In fact, the vessel frequently crosses

Lake Erie — nearby GE Transportation's manufactur- ing facility in Erie — as it brings grain from Thunder

Bay, Ontario, Canada to the province of Quebec.

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Voith Expands Marine Portfolio

Voith Turbo Marine entered into a commercial coop- eration with AIR Fertigung-Technologie GmbH & Co.

KG and aims to expand its portfolio in the market for marine propulsion systems made from CFK.

Based in Hohen-Luckow (Mecklenburg Ante-

Pomerania), AIR was founded in 1993 by employees of Rockstock University and has since then presented significant and internationally acclaimed develop- ments in propeller technology both for ships' propul- sion systems and wind power stations.

The company currently produces Contur-Propellers made from fiber compound plastics, which automati- cally adjust the propeller pitch independent of the thrust coefficient, so that optimum propulsion efficien- cy is achieved across the entire load range of the ship.

Additionally, AIR works at the innovative drive con- cepts Inline Thruster and Vector-Prop, which will shortly be launched in the marketplace.

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Composite Bearings for

Cutterhead Dredges

Thordon Composite cutterhead shaft bearings have been installed or ordered on six cutter suction dredgers in Europe, China and the Middle East.

Thordon Composite is a two-component elastomeric polymer alloy bearing specifically formulated to pro- vide superior wear life in abrasive water conditions.

Thordon Composite bearings operating in combination with a hard stainless steel shaft or hard coated shaft liner such as Ni-Cr-B are designed to significantly reduce maintenance downtime and costs over the oper- ating life of the dredge. "Archirodon Dredging Construction (Overseas) Co.

S.A, of United Arab Emirates has been using Thordon

Composite dredge bearings since 1999 and they have performed better than we expected," said Panos

Zoglopitis, Mechanical Engineer for Archirodon

Dredging Division. "We have installed Thordon Composite on CSD

Pontos and CSD Aetos and plan to continue using

Thordon Composite bearings and staves."

Other Cutter Suction Dredgers to be equipped or hav- ing had Thordon installed recently include Zeeland II owned by Van Oord Ship Management B.V.,

Netherlands, Huta Sete 07 owned by Huta-Sete Marine

Works Ltd., Saudi Arabia, Jin Hang Jun 215 owned by

Tianjin Waterway Bureau, China and CSD 8060 owned by Jan de Nul of Belgium. National Marine

Dredging Company of U.A.E has also been using

Thordon Composite dredge bearings since 1996 with installations on five of their dredgers.

The recently built jumbo dredger, D'Artagnan, owned by S.D.I. S.A. (Société De Dragage

International), France, also has water lubricated

Thordon Composite intermediate lineshaft bearings installed in addition to the Composite cuttherhead shaft bearings.

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Propulsion Technology

The EPS Silent Thruster

The EPS Silent Thruster from Van der Velden Marine

Systems won the Design at METS award. In addition to being overall winner of the DAME Award 2005, the EPS was also acclaimed winner of the Propulsion, Machinery,

Electrical and Mechanical category. Technical Director of

Van der Velden Marine Systems, Edwin van Buren, accepted the award for the system, which was developed following three years of development. "Many people said that it was impossible to create a thruster that could be silent, compact and lightweight. The project team, which included leading research institutes such as MARIN, overcame enormous technical problems to achieve this result and have developed a genuinely innovative solu- tion." The EPS Silent Thruster has no gap between the propeller blades and the tunnel, removing the main source of noise pollution. This unique construction, without gear or propeller shaft, also means that the EPS Silent Thruster is compact. A flexible rubber mounting further eliminates noise and vibra- tion. The EPS Silent Thruster is also designed to offer weight savings. Its lightweight blades were devel- oped using the very latest computer technology. The blades are designed to be simple to fit and exchange. Moreover, it offers an equally powerful thrust to both port and starboard as well as impres- sive steering power and maneuvering accuracy. In addition to the fixed thrusters, Van der Velden Marine

Systems is working on retractable systems as well as using the concept of the EPS as a means of propul- sion. Tests are currently being carried out for the latter purpose in order to optimise the shape of the pro- peller blades. The first version of the EPS - the EPS 800 (110,132, 160 kW) is already available. Models with the following power ratings will become available as follows. · EPS 650 (75, 90 kW): End 2005 · EPS 550 (55, 75 kW): Start 2006 · EPS 450 (22, 37 kW): Start 2006

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Water lubricated Composite bearings installed in self-pro- pelled ocean going jumbo Cutter Suction Dredger, d'Artagnan, at IHC Holland.

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