Dredge Cutterhead Bearing Applications News

After 10 years and more than 100,000 operating hours dredging up silt, sand, rocks and stones in some of the toughest marine environments imaginable, the Thordon Composite bearing installed on the Al Mirfa’s dredge cutter head shaft has emerged unscathed. In drydock where the NMDC-owned dredger is being upgraded, Thordon Bearings’ Dubai-based distributor, Ocean Power International, expected that even the ‘unbreakable’ might need replacing after such demanding workloads, but it didn’t.

Water lubricated Thordon Composite cutterhead shaft bearings have performed well for nine years on one of the largest cutter suction dredgers in the world–Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering N.V. (DEME)’s D'Artagnan (28,200 kW total installed power). The vessel had a major dry docking at Drydocks World-Dubai in February 2014 where the shaft was removed, and bearings and shaft inspected. Originally built in 2005, the D'Artagnanself-propelled cutter suction dredgeris involved in very heavy rock-breaking having a cutting power for operations in rock soils of 6000 kW.