Thordon Compac News

Peer-reviewed research by Thordon Bearings into the hydrodynamic lubrication efficiency of a ship’s propeller shaft bearing has found that the use of seawater-lubricated elastomeric polymer bearings reduces fuel consumption.The environmental and financial benefits of adopting a seawater-lubricated propeller shaft system are well documented, but this is the first indication that the arrangement reduces hydrodynamic resistance enough to improve fuel consumption, compared to a conventional…

Thordon Bearings said ABS issued an Approval in Principle to the “sterntube-less ship” concept developed in cooperation with the Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute (SDARI), the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and Thordon Bearings Inc.The design replaces a vessel’s sterntube with an irregular shaped chamber that allows a shorter, water-lubricated propeller shaft to be inspected and maintained while the vessel is afloat, without having to withdraw…

Thordon Bearings has debuted a new propeller shaft seal for the commercial shipping industry featuring a unique Safe Return to Port (SRTP) design.Completing the COMPAC open seawater lubricated propeller shaft bearing system, Thordon's new BlueWater Seal is described by the manufacturer as a cost effective, commercial grade axial lip seal specifically designed for merchant shipping fleets. It incorporates Thordon’s emergency SRTP capability, first used in the company’s TG100 and…

China’s Fujian Southeast Shipyard has delivered four in a series of five new product tankers ordered by Malaysia’s Orkim Sdn Bhd.The 9000dwt Orkim Sapphire and Orkim Pearl, and 14,500dwt Orkim Diamond and Orkim Emerald represent the first vessels in the ship operator’s fleet to be fitted with a COMPAC seawater lubricated shafting system from Thordon Bearings.Working with the shipowner’s representative, Shanghai-based CY Engineering, Thordon’s authorized distributor in China, supplied…

Canada’s Irving Shipbuilding has cited Thordon Bearings as one of a number of partners playing a pivotal role in ensuring the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) new Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) are capable of environmentally sustainable operations.The first two in a series of six twin-screw vessels entrusted to Irving Shipbuilding, have been put to water with Thordon’s COMPAC water lubricated propeller shaft bearings, which the shipbuilder says are “environmentally progressive” resulting in “zero risk of pollution”.In a recent article…

Viking Jupiter, the 47,800gt cruise ship built at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Ancona, Italy for Viking Cruises, has been delivered with a Thordon Bearings’ seawater-lubricated propeller shaft system. It is the sixth Viking cruise ship to be fitted out with the COMPAC bearing arrangement.Two 930 passenger-capacity sisterships, Viking Tellus and Viking Venus, currently undergoing construction at Fincantieri and slated for delivery in 2021, have also been specified with the pollution-free Thordon system.

Thordon Bearings has advised its customers with newbuilds under construction to make sure they have the necessary documentation in place permitting operations in U.S. waters prior to 18th December 2018.The advice follows the October 10 announcement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the 2013 Vessel General Permit, due to expire in December 2018, will now be administratively continued till at least March 2019, when an updated version, VGP 3.0, will be introduced.“The delay in introducing VGP 3.0 means that operators of existing vessels looking to operate in U.S.

Thordon Bearings Inc. and Heddle Marine Service Inc. have signed a cooperative agreement under which the Canada-based ship repair company will work together with Thordon Bearings Inc. to promote the conversion of ships’ oil lubricated propeller shafts to Thordon’s COMPAC open seawater lubricated bearing system.The agreement will create an action plan in which a specialist team, comprised of Heddle Marine and Thordon Bearings’ personnel, to offer support to ship managers and owners…

The bearing installations to two Calm Buoys operating offshore Libya are indicative of the wide-range of applications Thordon’s environmentally-safe bearing systems have outside the company’s traditional maritime market.A total of 48 bearings and bushings were supplied in 2014 for installation to the chain stoppers of Monobuoy’s 400t turntable Calm Buoys, a single point mooring system designed to allow oil tankers to load and offload cargoes offshore, without having to berth alongside the refinery.

Thordon Bearings and Drydocks World-Dubai (DDW-D) have signed an agreement under which the UAE-based shipyard will work together with Thordon Bearings Inc. to promote the conversion of ships’ oil lubricated propeller shafts to Thordon’s COMPAC open seawater lubricated bearing system. The agreement will create an action plan in which a specialist team, comprised of Drydocks World-Dubai and Thordon Bearings’ personnel, offer support to ship managers and owners looking to ensure…

COMPAC, Thordon Bearings’ seawater lubricated propeller shaft bearing system, won the Tanker Shipping & Trade Environment Award following a verdict that the system allows shipowners to cost-effectively comply with stringent marine pollution rules. Dr. Karen Purnell, the Managing Director of the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF), who sat on the award judging panel alongside representatives from INTERTANKO, IACS, UK MCA and Scorpio Tankers, said, “It is a…

Thordon Bearings has signed a contract to supply COMPAC seawater-lubricated propeller shaft bearing solutions to two Jones Act containerships under construction at the Aker Philadelphia Shipyard Inc. (APSI) for Matson Navigation Company, Inc. The order represents the first large containership reference for the manufacturer and the largest commercial ship propeller shafts to be fitted with COMPAC bearings, Thordon noted. The 3600TEU Aloha Class vessels, the largest Jones Act containerships ever built…

Thordon Bearings’ Swedish distributor, Duwel Sweden, has signed a contract with Caterpillar Propulsion for the supply and installation of Thordon COMPAC seawater lubricated propeller shaft bearing systems to the two general cargo ships Dutch shipyard Royal Bodewes is building for Finland’s Meriaura Group. Each state-of-the-art 4700 dwt VG EcoCoaster, designed by Meriaura Group together with partners Foreship and Aker Arctic Technology, will feature COMPAC bearings, a Thordon Water Quality Package and a forward shaft seal in order to exceed current and anticipated environmental regulations.

The Viking Star, a47, 800GTcruise ship, is one of three Viking Ocean Cruises’ newbuilds to opt for Thordon COMPAC seawater lubricated propeller shaft bearings. Constructed at Fincantieri’s Marghera shipyard, the 944-passenger Viking Star is the first of three new ships equipped with seawater lubricated propeller shafts instead of oil lubrication. Richard Goodwin, Vice President-Engineering at Viking Ocean Cruises, said, “We chose Thordon COMPAC for all our newbuildings because of the long experience of these seawater lubricated bearings which present no risk of oil pollution.

Eco-conscious Carisbrooke opts for seawater lubricated propeller shaft bearings on latest newbuildings. The Vectis Eagle, an 8500 dwt multi-purpose dry cargo vessel, is Carisbrooke Shipping’s latest newbuild and first of their fleet to be fitted with Thordon COMPAC seawater lubricated propeller shaft bearings. The Finnish/Swedish 1A Ice-Class vessel launched in September 2011 and is currently carrying out its maiden voyage through the Panama Canal travelling from China to Haiti and Brazil.

On May 26, 1998, then the largest cruise ship in the world, 109,000 GT Grand Princess, made her inaugural voyage with a 12 night cruise from Barcelona to Istanbul. Unlike contemporary cruise vessels at the time, she was fitted with seawater lubricated propeller shaft bearings. Due to her size, risk studies completed by the technical team at Princess Cruises/P&O, in conjunction with the shipbuilder, Fincantieri, indicated that few drydocks could take a vessel of this size. Any unscheduled drydocking to repair a stern tube seal leaking oil could result in substantial financial losses…

Istanbul Naval Shipyards has installed Thordon COMPAC seawater lubricated propeller shaft bearings on the new Turkish Navy Milgem Frigates. The keel was laid for the first vessel, TCG Heybeliada (F-511), in July 2005. Launched in September 2008, the vessel is scheduled to commission in early 2011. The second vessel in class, TCG Büyükada (F-512), was laid in September 2008. It is scheduled to be launched in 2010 and commissioned in 2013. The Milgem class frigates are 324 ft in length with a displacement of 2000 tons.

Caption: Composite image of patrol vessel for Royal Netherlands navy to be equipped with Thordon seawater lubricated COMPAC propeller shaft bearings. Schelde Naval Shipbuilding in Vlissingen, Netherlands will fit Thordon seawater lubricated Compac propeller shaft bearings to four Patrol Vessels that will be built for the Royal Netherlands Navy. With a 30 year history of supplying seawater lubricated bearings to many of the world’s navies, the Thordon Compac bearing system offers operational and wear performance…

Safer than safe could be dubbed the term that sums up the design philosophy on four 185,000 dwt Alaskan-class tankers that will soon be carrying oil along the U.S. West Coast. Currently being built in San Diego, Calif. by NASSCO, the BP Shipping-owned vessels feature the latest innovations in safe-ship design, including Thordon COMPAC water-lubricated propeller shaft bearings. During the design phase of the vessels, BP was determined to leave no stone unturned in its quest to minimize the risk of oil leakage. This included building in multiple redundant systems, and eliminating the use of oil wherever possible. "The prop shaft is an area where, traditionally, some lubricating oil can leak into the sea," says Stan Taylor, technical manager for BP.

The past decade was a tough one for the Canadian shipbuilding market. It was a decade that produced a decline of both employment and decline of newbuilds, many of which were contracted in the late 1980s still awaiting construction. This unfinished business was concentrated mostly on various military projects that had been thought out but were never actually followed through. It is estimated that by the time the 1990's came to a close that Canadian yards had experienced the worst decade since postwar times with total sales declining by about 50 percent since 1991. In addition, total employment in the industry has broken off by about 50 percent from 12,000 workers in 1990 to today's figure of 5,000.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has ordered water lubricated Thordon COMPAC propeller shaft bearing systems for two new cruise ships being built for Princess Cruises at the Nagasaki Shipyard in Japan. The two 110,000+ ton ships will be larger than the "Grand" class ships delivered from Italy. In addition, the MHI ships will incorporate a gas turbine along with four diesel engines in a new propulsion arrangement. Thordon Bearings is supplying a split carrier design that allows easy removal of the bearings with the shaft still in place. The elastomeric polymer alloy bearing inserts for the 642 mm dia. propeller shafts are in Thordon's COMPAC configuration - designed to promote hydrodynamic operation at low shaft speeds.