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Case Study

Marine Stern Tube Alignment Check

    Aquip was contacted by Hamilton Engineering to perform a laser alignment check on two 10m stern tubes on a submarine search & rescue ship.

    Aquip’s service engineering team met the client onsite to go through the technical specifications and visually determine where Aquip’s alignment equipment could be mounted to achieve the best possible results.

    Specifications

    Project

    Marine Stern Tube Alignment Check

    Project Overview
    • Aquip was approached by Hamilton Engineering to perform an alignment check on the starboard and port stern tube.
    • This would determine if the stern tube and the bearing housings were within acceptable tolerances before the installation of bearings and propeller shafts commenced.
    • The team needed to use PRÜFTECHNIK’s ROTALIGN Ultra IS and the CENTRALIGN bracket kit to perform the task.
    • Targets were made up before going to site and a total of seven measurement locations (with an average of 16 points taken at each location) were measured per stern tube.
    Project Challenges
    • Weather conditions, including wind and heat, were at risk of affecting the results during the alignment check. Thermal growth was a large risk as the ship was in an open area, meaning that the thermal influence on the ship would gradually affect the result.
    • Other challenges included vibration and disturbances from surrounding maintenance work where the ship was located.
    • There were also a few tight spaces which made the set-up process difficult.
    • Different diameters at the measurement locations also made this alignment check challenging.
    Project Results
    • Arriving to site early in the morning to minimise the influence of thermal growth, and before other maintenance work commenced, greatly improved the quality and the repeatability of the measurements with a low standard deviation.
    • The team were prepared with a detailed work instruction and laser alignment targets.
    • Using the PRÜFTECHNIK CENTRALIGN bracket kit meant we could finalise this complex alignment check in only a couple of hours, minimising the downtime.
    • The results presented by Aquip was of a high standard with 2D and 3D visualisation, as well as details about the measurement quality and standard deviation.
    • Based on this information, the customer could compare the result with the manufacturers specification. Once approved by their engineering team, they could commence with the work installing bearings and propeller shafts without delay.

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