Ship&Offshore | Ausgabe 06/2016
New azimuth PM thruster now available
Rolls-Royce | London-based Rolls-Royce has successfully completed a year of sea trials of its new azimuth permanent magnet (PM) thruster and made it available to customers for the first time at the SMM maritime trade fair. The thruster has been in operation aboard the 31m-long research vessel Gunnerus , owned by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, since April 2015 and has clocked up 3,000 hours of operation – 1,500 on each unit. On installation aboard the Gunnerus , the vessel’s existing shaft lines and rudders were converted to PM azimuth thrusters but the existing generator sets were maintained. This allowed exact comparisons to be made of performance before and after installation, Rolls-Royce points out.