# turbines and gear boxes



## david freeman (Jan 26, 2006)

A lot said about the opposed piston engines Doxfords, B&W's, then their is the Sulzer range and the pielstick variety, and an occassional Stork or That swedish Gothenborg engine, but no(Applause) mention of a reliable main turbine and gear box.
Pametrada Hp and LP Turbine + astern, Double Reduction articulated gears, or GE turbines HP, LP and Astern Double reduction gears, or Stal Laval HP LP Turbines and epycyclic gear boxes. All of these Impulse Type turbines with the latter stages Reaction, or the pure Parsons Turbines HP IP and LP reaction turbines (with the gear to reduce steam clearance on full away). The boilers you could take your pick from Foster Wheeler 'D' Type ESD type, Babcocks Doulbe cased, or the new fangled Single High pressure roof fired boilers, or tangential fired fire boxes. Even a Buawer Wach turbine slapped on the back end of a steam Up and downer with a scotch boiler. So many variations. Most of the time I suspect was spent inside the boiler supeheater or furnace staightening out such items as soot blowers and plugging tubes. Off course the auxilaries BTH, Allens Brotherhoods, Italian machines (Ansaldo), and weirs feed pumps and cargo pumps and T/a's. Many a dream????(Whaaa)(Bounce)(Eat)(Pint)


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## BlythSpirit (Dec 17, 2006)

I suspect the reason not much is said about steam turbines or gearboxes, is the fact that they were all so reliable that no work was normally done on them.

In twelve years on steam ships I only ever once worked on them renewing a LP turbine bearing that we managed to wipe by going astern for three days at an SBM off Durban. That is if you discount renewing turbine drain line gaskets, which is hardly high tech engineering work!


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## surfaceblow (Jan 16, 2008)

I was on a steam tanker that sideswiped the D buoy which in turn damaged the propeller. The unbalanced propeller vibration damaged the LP labyrinth gland. Until we got a chance to fix the gland we would start losing vacuum below 60 prm and would have to increase the gland steam pressure during maneuvering. When we returned to the Gulf the replacement propellor was on its way to a laid dock where we ballasted and removed some bunkers to get the damaged propeller hub out of the water. While the propeller was being changed we removed the quill shaft for cleaning the old grease and repaired the bent edges on the labyrinth gland. 

Other than that repair the only other times I have been inside the turbine or reduction gears on a Steamship was for the ABS Inspections. 

Joe


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## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

I was on a T2 that a Puerto Rico pilot backed us down into a wooden pier going full astern. We ballasted and lifted the stern and saw that the tips of four blades were bent forward the fifth faced aft. We talked via phone with our new york office who recommended a sea trial and see. So we did and had no vibration so we continued to load our cargo.

The funny thing is after that we ALWAYS had positive propeller slip. We talked about patenting it.

Six months later in for an overhaul we were really surprised to see that all the blades off of some turbine stages were gone. They all were lying down atop and down in amongst condenser tubes. Luckily none of them pierced a tube.

Two pics taken after offending equipment was ashore attached.

Greg Hayden


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