'New Solution' to Oil-Based Dilemmas

摘要

With the growing clamour for reductions in stern tube oil leakage leading to port fines and environmental enforcement actions, manufacturers are having to get clever with system designs in this critical onboard operational area. The agenda is further clouded by the issues involved in adopting the conventional oil-lubricated stern tube systems, or the water-lubricated system. While the merits of both have long been debated, the only notable difference has perhaps concerned that of viscosity of the lubricant (see MER September 2000, pg 17), and as such many shipowners continue to adopt the system which they feel best fits their needs. Flying the flag for water-lubricated solutions is the Canada-based specialist Thordon Bearings, who have used experience garnered from more than a quarter of a century in the field of water-lubricated marine bearing installations, to develop a new third-generation lubricant, the TL3G.