Cylinder Lubricating Oil News

Wärtsilä has been awarded a contract by DSD Shipping AS of Stavanger, Norway to retrofit the main engines on four DSD Shipping vessels with the Wärtsilä Retrofit Pulse Lubricating System. The Retrofit Pulse Lubricating System (RPLS) is designed to lower the oil feed rate to the engine, thus cutting the consumption of lubricating oil. This creates savings in operating costs, and also has a positive effect on exhaust emissions. The DSD Shipping contract is Wärtsilä's first order for the retrofitting of small bore two-stroke engines with this system.

MAN Diesel’s first S40ME-B electronic engine has entered service. Yielding 6,810 kW at 146 rpm and an mep of 21 bar, the new engine was built by STX in Korea and is one of six ordered by Intership Navigation of Cyprus to power a series of vessels. The ME-B engine is the prime mover aboard the Pacific Adventure, a multi-purpose vessel built at HuangHai shipyard in China. The newbuilding recently passed its sea-trials successfully. The market requirement for the lowest possible propeller speed in relation to bore size has led to the new ME-B engine having a stroke/bore ratio of 4.4.

Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (MES) completed and delivered a 110,000 dwt type double hull crude oil tanker, the Eagle Sapporo (MES Hull No. 1696) at its Chiba Works to Maybaru Shipping & Trading Pte Ltd, Singapore on December 10, 2008. This is the 11th Aframax Tanker in this series which has the largest deadweight and the largest cargo tank capacity with 42 meter beam and an overall length 804 ft. •    The vessel has a cargo tank capacity of 128,000 m3 and deadweight of 110,400 tons, which are the largest class for Aframax Tanker with 42 meter beam. •    The vessel has the newest hull form including bulbous bow stern arrangement and has MIPB (Mitsui Integrated Propeller Boss with Wing) as energy-saving device…

Wärtsilä Corporation has increased the power outputs available from Sulzer RTA96C low-speed marine diesel engines by some four percent, and also added a 14-cylinder model to bring the maximum output available up to 80,080 kW (108,920 bhp). The higher powers and the 14-cylinder engine are intended to meet the requirements of shipowners and shipbuilders for both today's large, fast post-Panamax container ships and the next generation of larger ships of up to 10,000 TEU. The RTA96C now gives 5,720 kW (7,780 bhp) per cylinder maximum continuous output at 102 rpm. Thus the power output of the 12-cylinder RTA96C is increased from 65,880 kW (89,640 bhp) maximum continuous output to 68,640 kW (93,360 bhp).

Wärtsilä Corporation has introduced a new, electronically-controlled cylinder lubricating system to meet the demand for lower cylinder oil feed rates: the Pulse Lubricating System (PLS). Developed for application in Wärtsilä RTA and RT-flex low-speed marine diesel engines, it delivers reduced cylinder oil consumption without compromising piston-running reliability. The Pulse Lubricating System makes it possible to reduce the cylinder oil feed rate compared with the existing accumulator system through an improved distribution of cylinder lubricating oil to the cylinder liner, and the fully flexible, precise timing of oil delivery.

On February 14, the world's largest high-speed ferry catamaran Stena Discovery took off from Belfast, after a planned drydocking, and about one hour out at sea on the captain's command the waterjet control was switched over to steering by a retrofitted Humphree Interceptor Steering System. While the interceptors engaged and provided the means for directional control of the vessel, the steering buckets of the four Kamewa 160 SII waterjets, in total absorbing a power of 68.5 MW, automatically returned to their neutral, or boost position, allowing all waterjet thrust to be vectored forward for maximum thrust, and eliminating the waterjet bucket drag.

Modern tools of research take many, increasingly high-technology forms, but large test machinery is especially apposite to the marine field, with its blend of applied science and solid, practical disciplines. Lubmarine has ploughed $2-million into a new, purpose-built test engine in France. Derived from a five-cylinder medium-speed diesel of the MAN B&W 16/24 type, the Innovator-4C evaluation and research engine is due to be brought into service this month (May) at the TotalFinaElf Research Center (CRES) at Solaize, near Lyons. It will replace the single-cylinder, Elf-Optimizer test bench, based on a Pielstick PC2.6 engine, first installed at Solaize 20 years ago and extensively modified in 1994 in response to changing development requirements.