DEVELOPMENTS IN STERN TUBE BEARING AND SEAL DESIGNS

Oil lubricated stern tube bearings are the accepted design for use on essentially all large commercial ocean-going ships. They are being increasingly specified for Great Lakes ships and also for smaller ocean-going vessels, tugs, and harbor craft. The history of the development and use of this type bearing for stern tubes, as opposed to water lubricated bearings, has been outlined previously and will not be repeated here. A need existed for an improved stern bearing primarily because of wear and corrosion problems, and oil lubricated bearings provided an answer to this need. The use of oil bearings requires, of course, the use of seals to maintain the oil in the bearings. Thus when oil lubricated stern tube bearings are discussed, the combination of bearings and seals are usually considered as a package. In addition, the lube oil system is essential to the operation of both the bearings and seals and is properly included in any such discussion or study. The company with which the author is associated designs and manufactures oil lubricated stern tube bearings and their associated seals. In this respect, development work is pursued in this area to improve the product and to provide designs to meet the ever-increasing demands of new ship designs. It is this development work and some of the results of this work to date that are the subject of this paper. This work has been carried on in all three areas mentioned above; that is, bearings, seals, and lube systems. This discussion will be divided into these three areas.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Presented at San Diego Section of SNAME.
• Corporate Authors:

  Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers

  601 Pavonia Avenue
  Jersey City, NJ  United States  07306-2907
• Authors:
  • Gardner, W W
• Publication Date: 1972-3-15

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 24 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bearings; Lubrication; Seals (Devices)
• Old TRIS Terms: Bearing lubrication; Stern tube bearings
• Subject Areas: Marine Transportation; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00039327
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 10 1973 12:00AM