The Performance And Characteristics Of Marine Tunnel Thruster

The Performance And Characteristics Of Marine Tunnel Thruster

Marine tunnel thruster, also known as "side thruster." It means to open a tunnel at a certain depth below the design waterline of the ship, equipped with a normal propeller, which is directly driven by electric motor or drive hydraulic equipment to drive the propeller then generate thrust to make the ship bow turn to any side.

The side thruster located in the bow side is called bow thruster, side thruster located at the stern side is called the stern thruster. After adopted side thruster, the maneuverability of the ship during low speed sailing, reverse sailing or suspension is significantly improved. The thruster are mainly composed of an electric motor, a vertical transmission and a propeller. The propeller of the thruster generally uses controllable pitch propeller. The side thruster can directly control the thrust and direction on the bridge with the handle, and the side thrust is generally divided into 2~3 levels.

Marine side thruster is a very important equipment that assist the ship driving. Especially in a narrow harbor, it can make the ship quick and flexible. It is suitable for a variety of ships such as vehicle ferries, container ships and ro-ro ships.

Side thruster generally includes the prime mover, hydraulic system, remote control system and side thruster unit. The prime mover normally is electric motor, but it can also be a diesel engine or a hydraulic motor.

Choose prime mover: 

The tunnel thruster can be powered by a diesel engine, an electric motor or a hydraulic motor. The motor is available as an optional part in the scope of delivery. The prime mover can be connected horizontally or vertically so that it can be integrated into the shipbuilding design in an optimal state. When using a fixed pitch propeller, the electric motor and hydraulic motor allow the thrust direction to be reversed. If a diesel engine is used to power the propeller, an additional reversing gearbox is required.

Optimized design for bigger thrust: 

Thrust is the decisive basis for measuring the performance of side thruster. Therefore, our company pay great importance to the optimization design of the propeller. In all cases, the propeller optimization design is carried out separately according to the geometry of the vessel. At the same time, the propeller design takes into account any special requirements related to the noise level, and the special requirements for different applications vary. An important parameter to consider the effectiveness of side thruster is the size of the gap between the draft tube and the propeller, which we have reduced to a minimum on all models.

Advantage

1. Suitable for extreme load conditions, such as offshore applications;

2. Can work continuously and in short time with low noise

3. Can be equipped with fixed pitch or adjustable pitch propeller

4. Powered by diesel engine, hydraulic or electric motor

5. The power input flange can be placed horizontally, vertically or tilted, so has compact design.

6. It can be installed on the ship’s narrower bow or stern, which makes the thruster farther away from the center of gravity of the ship and has greater turning torque, which improves the maneuverability of the ship.

7. Improved balance performance on both sides: The left and right thrusts are the same and therefore have a good balance.

8. Easy to assemble and disassemble: The propulsion unit can be easily assembled and disassembled in the duct to make maintenance easier.

9. Easy to change propeller blades: Each blade can be easily replaced in the pipe. When it is necessary to change the blade at sea, simply adjust the ship's ballast to float the pipe out of the sea.

Bow thruster:

Propeller of bow thruster:

Lower gearbox:

Prime mover- diesel engine:

Control panel and box:

Packing & delivery: