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Mounting a Challenge to Movement
01 Apr 2004
Trelleborg Industrial AVS has designed a new mounting system to eliminate excessive engine movements in a fleet of twin-engined multi-hulls operated by City Cruises plc on the River Thames in London.
The original mounting system featured six mounts, of which four were ‘tandemised’ by means of a steel plate across the top supporting another mount under the feet of the gearbox/bell housing. This unusual arrangement produced 14mm of engine movement fore and aft when the vessel was manoeuvring and resulted in considerable wear to the propshaft as well as substantial leakage around the rear gland.
The solution proposed by Trelleborg was a conventional four point mounting system based on the new Metalastik HT Cushyfloat, which has been specifically designed for higher thrust loading and higher torque output of modern marine engines. The engines now move only 0.5mm upon engaging forward or reverse gears.
The rubber element of the Metalistik HT Cushyfloat is precisely configured to combine a relatively high degree of flexibility in the vertical and lateral modes with good latitudinal stiffness fore and aft. It incorporates bump and rebound control features to limit excessive movement under shock and a corrosion resistant metal cover to protect the rubber against oil contamination.
City Cruises’ fleet of one trimaran and four catamarans carry 750,000 passengers annually. The vessels were built by Vosper Thornycroft and are all powered by twin Cummins engines. The engine mount replacement work was carried out by George Prior Engineering of Great Yarmouth.
MJ Information No: 19337
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