Ship&Offshore | Ausgabe 06/2024
Class move signals industry drive towards oil-free propulsion
Along with cost savings and greater operational efficiency, the sea water-based lubrication of propeller shaft bearings offers significant environmental benefits as oil pollution is eliminated. However, operators of these systems have, until recently, had to comply with more demanding propeller shaft withdrawal and inspection regimes than their oil-based counterparts. Following a decade during which individual classification societies gradually updated their rules to reflect the modernisation of seawater-lubricated bearing materials and systems, all the major societies have revised their rules and notations to make sea water-lubrication technically equivalent to that of oil....