Test rig demonstrates complete FuTube family

Those two components are represented by an electric motor for the engine and a device that can replicate the vertical and horizontal forces on the shaft that would arise from a propeller in various operating modes. Everything else uses standard equipment.

No photographs are available of the set-up, so a brief description is useful for this report. The electric motor is connected via a hydraulic coupling to a 9.5m shaft which passes through an intermediate bearing and on to an EvoTube sterntube, fitted with an IntelliSafe bearing. A conventional lip-type seal is fitted at the inboard end and a Wärtsilä Airguard seal at the outboard end. Lubricating oil tanks and the various pumps – including the air pump for the aft seal are also included in the rig.

Jose Antonio Vazquez, SLS’ Technical Manager, Engineering, explained that the rig can be configured to represent any combination of components and propeller forces that a customer is contemplating and then be run for several days, following automated operating cycles, to demonstrate the various elements and collect data over a realistic length of time.

These cycles would particularly demonstrate the benefits of the IntelliSafe bearing, he suggested. “We are producing a situation where the bearing should be wearing, but because it is protected by IntelliSafe, it will react and increase the oil film to avoid wear,” he told The Motorship.

As well as these customer-focused demonstrations, during the two years it has been in use it has provided valuable insights that have helped its EvoTube and IntelliSafe development, in particular in comparing the ability of the cooled oil to reduce the bearing temperature quickly, compared with a conventional bearing. To perform that comparison on a ship would require it to be drydocked for components to be replaced, which would be almost impossible, he said.