Thordon Bearings

Thordon Bearings has delivered its COMPAC water-lubricated propeller shaft bearing solution to the final vessels in a series of three new bulk carrier newbuilds scheduled to join a fleet of Canadian lakers.

The 35,000dwt boom forward, self-discharging bulkers are the most recent Canadian-owned vessels to be “Thordonized” with a complete COMPAC system. The package includes elastomeric polymer water-lubricated bearings, ThorShield propeller shaft corrosion protection, Thordon Water Quality Package, and the Thordon Bearing Condition Monitoring system.

The 225-metre-long (738 ft) Seawaymax vessel was named at the 3 Maj Shipyard in Croatia in May 2024.and is expected to begin operations later this year or in early 2025. It is the shipowner’s 17th vessel to employ a COMPAC water-lubricated bearing system.

The newbuilds, part of the shipowner’s fleet renewal program, are designed to achieve a 40% improvement in carbon intensity, on average, compared to the ships they have replaced. Thordon Bearings’ water-lubricated propeller shaft bearings add to their clean credentials by ensuring there is no risk of oil leakage from the stern tube, as the propeller shaft is lubricated with water, not oil.

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Thordon Bearings has secured an order from French shipbuilding giant Chantiers de l'Atlantique to supply its award-winning COMPAC seawater-lubricated propeller shaft bearings for installation to a pair of wind-assisted passenger ships operated by luxury travel operator Accor.

When the first 220m (722ft) long, 22,300gt vessel is delivered in 2026, Orient Express Corinthian will be the world’s largest contemporary sail ship.

The contract marks Thordon’s first reference aboard a Chantiers de l'Atlantique-built cruise ship and its first bearing installation aboard a wind powered ship.

While three 100m (329ft) tall, 1500m2 SolidSail rigs, a wind sail system develop by the French shipbuilder, will contribute significantly to propulsion, primary propulsive power will be through a conventional seawater-lubricated propeller shaft driven by an LNG-fueled prime mover. Accor also plans to run the ship on green hydrogen once the fuel is approved for ocean-going passenger ships.

Thordon’s scope of supply to the twin screw vessel includes COMPAC seawater-lubricated bearings machined to fit 370mm (14.5in) diameter propeller shafts.

Commenting on the significance of winning the tender, Neil McDonald, Thordon’s Regional Manager, Northern Europe & Africa, said: “For these environmentally focused vessels, an oil-lubricated propeller shaft bearing system was out of the question, and although Chantiers de l’Atlantique has experience with our COMPAC seawater-lubricated bearing system across its naval vessel newbuildings, we still had to go through a lengthy and complex tendering process. I believe we won over competing water-lubricated bearing suppliers due to our patience, reputation and, ultimately, a much better performing product. Thordon’s COMPAC will contribute significantly to reducing the vessels’ environmental impact and maintenance costs.”

By taking the legendary Orient Express to sea, Orient Express Corinthian – Accor’s entry into the luxury cruise market – is firmly rooted in the famous train’s history, but it also invokes the golden age of cruise travel, of which there can be no finer example than the famous Chantiers de l’Atlantique-built liner SS Normandie.

Benoît d'Alançon, Directeur General, Wenex Equipment, Thordon Bearings’ authorized distributor in France, said: “The Orient Express Corinthian firmly nods to both the legendary liner of the 1930s and that cosmopolitan icon of train travel, but modern, more environmentally sustainable technology is at the heart of this ultra-modern ship. COMPAC strengthens Accor’s vision of what a zero-pollution passenger ship looks like.”

Built to Bureau Veritas class and adopting its MON-SHAFT notation, Thordon’s open seawater-lubricated COMPAC polymer bearing is designed to promote early formation of a hydrodynamic film between the shaft and bearing. As the viscous friction acting on the rotating shaft is lower with seawater than with oil, research has shown that in addition to reduced OPEX, operators also benefit from lower fuel consumption and subsequent emissions. Another benefit is that COMPAC negates the need for a damage-prone aft seal.

Commenting on Accor’s decision to adopt wind-assisted propulsion technology, Gavin Allwright, Secretary of the International Wind Ship Association (IWSA), said: “There can be no clearer sign that the passenger ship sector has accepted wind propulsion as the best way of reducing carbon emissions than Orient Express Corinthian, which is set to be the world’s largest primary wind passenger ship. We are delighted that Chantiers de l’Atlantique and Thordon Bearings – both of which are IWSA members – have been instrumental in ensuring Accor’s first luxury passenger ships operate environmentally above and below the waterline.”

There are now more than 40 commercial vessels with wind-assisted propulsion systems, with an additional 16 on order.

Orient Express Corinthian, the first in a series of two 130 passenger/170 crew capacity ships, is scheduled for delivery in March 2026, followed by her yet-to-be-named sister in September 2027. Accor has options on a further two ships. 

Wenex is set to deliver the Thordon scope for the first ship in March 2025.

At CANSEC 2023, Vard Marine Inc. (VARD), a Fincantieri company, proudly launched VIGILANCE, as their solution to replace the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) Kingston Class Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels (MCDV) under Pillar Two of Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS). In conjunction with Team Vigilance partner companies Thales Canada, Ontario Shipyards, SH Defence, and Fincantieri, VIGILANCE will provide the RCN with a lightweight and operationally flexible military asset that is highly capable and globally deployable. VIGILANCE can perform all roles of the existing MCDV, while also fulfilling crucial naval warfare duties beyond the capabilities of both the MCDV and the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessels (AOPV), including in the littoral battlespace.

This collaboration ensures Team Vigilance can meet the needs of the Royal Canadian Navy’s future fleet with a tailored naval solution, striking the optimum balance between capability and cost, while also maintaining the life-cycle cost advantages VARD’s naval designs are known for.

As a part of the ongoing effort, Team Vigilance continues to assemble a broad coalition of Canadian companies that can offer important services and vital equipment to the program. Building a robust coalition is key to the core objective that VIGILANCE be designed in Canada, built in Canada, and equipped in Canada. To this end, Team Vigilance launched their Preferred Suppliers Program at DEFSEC 2023 in Halifax last October.

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Thordon Bearings secures a second major Mexican Navy contract for the supply of its water-lubricated SXL wear rings for retrofit installation to the waterjet propulsion nozzles on 25 interceptor patrol vessels.

The contract follows the success of extensive trials in which the SXL material replaced the use of other anti-corrosive coatings in waterjet impeller housings, resulting in increased resistance to cavitation induced corrosion.

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In an initiative set to be transformational for ship design while protecting the oceans from pollution, Thordon Bearings and Wärtsilä have announced the formation of the Blue Ocean Alliance to develop and promote the revolutionary sterntube-less ship concept.

The Blue Ocean Alliance brings together unrivalled maritime industry expertise, with seawater-lubricated bearings pioneer Thordon Bearings, systems integrator Wärtsilä, the School of Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), naval architect SDARI (Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute CSSC) and classification society, ABS, who championed the initiative in 2019.

The concept of a ship design that does not require a sterntube and eliminates the need for oil-lubricated sterntube seals and bearings is revolutionary. The design is also likely to save ship owners hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital and operational expenditure over a vessel’s lifespan, including zero requirement for lubricating oil or biodegradable lubricants.

ABS has estimated that in a sterntube-less ship design, a two-week dry-dock re-alignment or bearing and seal replacement job, can instead be completed in a single day while the vessel is afloat.

Ship designer SDARI, in partnership with Thordon and NTUA, has already been granted an Approval in Principle (AIP) from ABS for the concept design of the sterntube-less vessel with Thordon’s COMPAC Split Seawater-Lubricated Aft Bearing. ABS is further developing a pertinent Guide and Notation for such a ship.

Thordon is calling the concept T-BOSS (Thordon-Blue Ocean Stern Space), a revolutionary sterntube-less propeller shaft system design, in which the vessel’s sterntube cooling tank is replaced with a dry irregularly shaped chamber, thus allowing for inspection and maintenance of a seawater-lubricated single bearing and seal from inside the ship, while afloat, without any need to withdraw the shaft.

The T-BOSS utilizes Thordon’s award-winning seawater-lubricated COMPAC propeller shaft bearing system and the Wärtsilä Enviroguard Seal, which requires no maintenance between planned overhauls of up to five years. As well as eliminating the need to withdraw the propeller shaft for the lifetime of the ship, the COMPAC bearing comes with a lifetime bearing wearlife guarantee.

Anna Galoni, CEO, Thordon Bearings, said: “The Blue Ocean Alliance brings together a formidable partnership to develop and further promote the concept. The fact that several ship owners have already shown interest in this solution is extremely encouraging.

“The T-BOSS concept introduces a new approach to a merchant vessel’s aft layout – removing the sterntube casing, employing seawater for lubrication and creating a dry chamber to permit in-water maintenance for the first time. These innovations enable ship owners and shipyards to eliminate propeller shaft oil emissions, simplify maintenance and lower operational costs.”

Rob Burford, Vice President of Shaft Line Solutions at Wärtsilä, said: “The Blue Ocean Alliance and the sterntube-less ship design promise to revolutionize the way that ships are built and operated, delivering cost savings and efficiency improvements.”

Thordon and its partners strive to shape the decarbonization of the marine and energy sectors, with products and solutions that provide efficiency, reliability, safety and environmental performance.

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Thordon Bearings has been awarded a contract to supply seawater-lubricated bearings for installation to the first of two modified versions of the Harry DeWolf-class of Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS). The new ships for the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) are on order and will be built at Irving Shipbuilding’s Halifax Shipyard.

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In what marks a relatively new application for Thordon Bearings’ pioneering polymer material, Wilson Ship Management AS (“Wilson”), a Norway-based ship manager, replaced the greased bronze bearings on the hatch cover wheels of the hatch cover wheels some of its dry cargo vessels with self-lubricating ThorPlas-Blue bearings.

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Future newbuild ships of all types should be built without a sterntube and with a seawater-lubricated propeller shaft bearing arrangement, according to Blue Ocean Alliance’s Chris Leontopoulos.

Speaking at a recent maritime industry forum in Hamburg, Mr. Leontopoulos said the sterntubeless ship design – jointly developed by Blue Ocean Alliance members ABS, Thordon Bearings, Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute (SDARI), Wärtsilä, and the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) – is so commercially, operationally and environmentally attractive that “I personally hope that in the future all ships are built like this”.

Kick-starting his presentation with the startling statistic that more than eight million litres of sterntube lubricating oil is polluting the oceans annually, Mr. Leontopoulos, ABS’ Vice President, Technology, EMEA, said the design interventions proposed by the group can deliver a commercially and environmentally optimal vessel capable of saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in operational costs. This, without changing hull lines or existing class rules and regulations.

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Peer-reviewed research by Thordon Bearings into the hydrodynamic lubrication efficiency of a ship’s propeller shaft bearing has found that the use of seawater-lubricated elastomeric polymer bearings reduces fuel consumption.

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Thordon Bearings’ Egyptian distributor and integrated services provider Nefertiti Marine has successfully commissioned the water lubricated Thordon SXL propeller shaft bearings installed aboard the 24,112gt ferry Daleela.