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Case Study

Ferry Boat Propulsion Clutch Life

PROBLEM Our customer operates three ferries around the clock, year round. They are able to schedule dry-docking one at a time, and only one vessel per year. They are faced with making repair/replacement decisions to guarantee no downtime, but faced with a limited budget. […]

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Shipyard Crane Brake Upgrade

PROBLEM Our customer is a large shipyard operating over 400 cranes and the operation is over 100 years old. A number of these cranes and brakes are now obsolete. This makes maintenance extra tough. They had one brake which required continuous attention and still […]

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Torsional Vibration Damages Tug Clutch

PROBLEM This customer had just replaced the friction plates in his forward and reverse clutches. The next morning they had picked up a barge and had headed out the inlet. Shortly after reaching full ahead, smoke began to fill the engine room. Unable to […]

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Drive Overload Protection

PROBLEM From time to time, the propeller would strike a log or piling instantly shearing the pinion shaft in the reduction gear. This resulted in costly rebuilds and downtime on a regular basis. SOLUTION The existing drive configuration, a typically tight marine envelope, limited […]

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Tug Clutch Update

PROBLEM Over the life of a vessel, you typically find maintenance costs increasing. Our customer found this particularly true of their forward and reverse clutches. SOLUTION We were able to come up with an alternate design which has consistently operated with significantly lower maintenance […]

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Ship Smokes Due To Wrong Coupling

PROBLEM A vessel’s operator contacted us because the starboard clutch had overheated. Within twenty-four hours, we were on board to check it out. This ship was being returned to service after being layed up for two years. SOLUTION A review of the propulsion system […]

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Gantry Crane Arm Mount

PROBLEM During an equipment update our customer had the challenge of finding the best way to connect the gantry arm to the base. To complicate matters, the installation was on a ship’s deck with heavy exposure to salt water. SOLUTION We were able to […]

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Special Drive Flanges

PROBLEM Our customer needed to connect an existing gear and water jet. This installation had two different flange connections, neither of which matched standard universal joint flanges. SOLUTION We reviewed the application to identify the proper size shaft, then evaluated the flange configurations. We […]

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Chain Tensioning

PROBLEM Our water treatment plant customer operates several settling tanks with slow moving chain driven conveyors. Their original spring-loaded arm chain tensioner did not provide proper tension. As a result, they did not have good contact between the chain and sprocket teeth. Over time […]

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Flood Control Pump

PROBLEM A municipality operated a number of pumping stations to control flooding. The pumps were driven by diesel engines. Over the years, reverse water pressure back-drove the pump and engine resulting in equipment damage. SOLUTION We reviewed the installation and found we had limited […]

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