Type Approval for Kongsberg's Bearing Wear Condition Monitor

No open-up inspections required following Type Approval.

Kongsberg Maritime is pleased to announce that it has received system Type Approval for its Bearing Wear Condition Monitoring (BWCM) system. The Type Approval was received October 2011 and is according to Germanischer Lloyd’s (GL) ‘Guidelines for Machinery Condition Monitoring’, meaning it is now approved to avoid open-up inspections, thereby reducing engine downtime and maintenance costs significantly. The KONGSBERG BWCM system measures and displays the combined physical wear of crosshead, crank and main bearings, providing early bearing seizure warnings if problems occur during engine operation. It protects the engine continuously during operation, based on the latest specifications from MAN Diesel & Turbo including detection of sudden wear development. The sensors are specifically designed to provide reliable and accurate measurements over years of operation inside the engine. To date KONGSBERG has sold over 550 systems to new building and retrofit projects.

Compared to manual clearance measurements, the BWCM will provide long-term wear data with better accuracy, higher repeatability and reliability. It monitors the combined wear of all three principal crank-train bearings at Bottom Dead Centre (BDC), using two proximity sensors (forward and aft) per cylinder. The system will provide an alarm before steel to steel contact, therefore helping to avoid catastrophic engine failure and the associated HSE risk, costs and downtime. The KONGSBERG BWCM system can be fully integrated into KONGSBERG’s K-Chief Alarm and Monitoring system and AutoChief C20 Propulsion Control system, using the same uniform interface for easy operation and monitoring. Additionally Bearing Temperature Monitoring for all three crank-train bearings can be included.