Page 48: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2022)

GREEN TECH FEATURE WELDING

Tony

Hamilton

Technical

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Inside Thordon’s BlueWater Seal

By Greg Trauthwein arlier this year Thordon Bear- (in thickness) both radially and circum- allowing the seal to be replaced in port.” ings debuted the BlueWater ferentially. “What that does is it pro- “Although we can offer the seal as an

Seal, a new propeller shaft seal vides a better pressure distribution when individual component, it forms a funda-

E for the commercial shipping in- the seal is doing its job,” said Hamilton. mental part of the Thordon COMPAC dustry featuring a unique Safe Return “So when you take a different draft, dif- open seawater lubricated propeller shaft to Port (SRTP) design. Tony Hamilton ferent pressure conditions, the seal ad- bearing system,” said Hamilton.

Thordon’s technical director, takes us justs to keep the ceiling face at the right The COMPAC system includes Thor- for an inside look. pressure, minimizing wear on the mate- don’s proprietary seawater lubricated

Completing the COMPAC open sea- rial itself. That’s where the longer life COMPAC bearings, shaft liners, Thor- water lubricated propeller shaft bear- comes in. It also keeps the leakage rate Shield anti-corrosion shaft coating, ing system, Thordon’s new BlueWater down to minimum, zero to ? ve liters per a Thordon Water Quality Package, a

Seal is described by the manufacturer day.” Thordon Bearing Condition Monitoring as a cost effective, commercial grade “The Safe Return to Port is a unique System, and, now, the new BlueWater axial lip seal speci? cally designed for feature as is the RENFORM seal, the lip Seal. merchant shipping ? eets. It incorporates seal itself,” said Hamilton. “The Safe The seal can be installed to all vessels

Thordon’s emergency SRTP capability, Return to Port is basically a bladder, with shaft diameters between 300mm to ? rst used in the company’s TG100 and in? ated with air to about 120 PSI. It’s 1000mm (11.8in to 39.4in), and has re-

SeaThigor – designed for the workboat in? ated when you want to replace the ceived class approvals from ABS, LR, and specialized naval vessel markets re- RENFORM seal.” The SRTP features DNV, BV and CCS.

spectively – representing the ? rst SRTP offers two methods to replace the lip “This seal minimizes water leakage seal designed for the merchant ? eet. seal: at sea or in port. and dramatically improves hydrody- “At ? rst glance the Thordon BlueWa- “You already have a spare on the namic and lubrication ef? ciency,” Ham- ter Seal may look like any other axial shaft, you in? ate the bladder and you ilton said. lip face seal out there,” said Hamilton. can ? x the seal right there at sea. Or, “The development is a real boon to “But what makes this seal unique is you can motor the vessel into port,” said those ship owners and operators look- its SRTP capability and revolutionary Hamilton. That’s what’s unique about ing to adopt an open seawater lubricat-

RENFORM main seal ring.” the material: it can take a certain amount ed shaft line arrangement as the entire

According to Hamilton, the Renform of friction, allowing you to operate, turn propeller shaft line system can now be seal is a proprietary material, that varies the shaft while that bladder’s in? ated; sourced from one company.” 48 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • May 2022

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