- Ship automation
- Monitoring of drives and rudder propellers
Monitoring of drives and rudder propellers
Modern ships are characterised by a hybrid drive unit consisting of a combustion engine and an electric motor. However, motors, gears, bearings and shafts are subject to high mechanical stress.
Condition-based monitoring of drives enables early detection of arising machine damage, allows for maintenance to be planned while still on the high seas, thus reducing costs and/or time at dockyards.
During operation, gears and motors are exposed to high mechanical forces which cause continuous wear, for example to gears and rolling element bearings. Rotating machine parts of gears and motors generate vibrations during operation. The wear of bearings and toothed wheels as well as unbalance and misalignment lead to an increase oscillation amplitude, which is a good measure of the machine condition.
Solutions
Unbalance, bearing or gear conditions can be monitored by means of systems for vibration monitoring and are used for condition-based maintenance of machines and installations. This helps to detect machine damage in good time and prevent costly consequential damage.
Because the lubricity of oil is determined by its temperature, the oil temperature is continuously monitored in the recirculating oil lubrication system of the gear by means of compact transmitters in order to ensure high machine uptime. The oil temperature difference between the flow and return lines is a reliable long-term indicator of the gear condition and the expected lifetime.
Housing temperature
Just like the vibration behavior, the housing temperature is indicative of the condition, quality and life expectancy of a drive motor, bearing or gear. A bolt-on temperature probe of type TS with DNV Approval measures the temperature and transmits the measured values to an evaluation unit.
