Divers deliver quick fix for bent blade

The Hydrex cold straightening procedure has been in use for quite some time now but the company’s research department has been looking into ways to expand the technique even further to improve the offered services. This has led to the development of a new model of the straightening machine which is compatible with the existing model and is used to restore more severely bent propeller blades to their original condition.

When an inspection revealed one of the propeller blades to be seriously bent, the owners of the container vessel contacted Hydrex. The damage prevented the motor from achieving its normal capacity and decreased the ship’s efficiency by some 10%, a problem which until recently could only be fixed by cropping the damaged area.

A Hydrex team attended the ship where an inspection of the blade showed that fortunately no surface cracking had taken place. Based on the results obtained by the survey, a feasibility study was done in consultation with an Aegir Marine Propulsion Systems engineer and a proposal was offered to the customer and duly accepted.

After the necessary calculations had been made, the blade was straightened back to its original position, taking care not to create any cracks as the blade already had suffered a great deal of stress.

With the trained Hydrex diver/technicians, who have experience in making decisions on site, and the close cooperation with Aegir Marine, the team was able to leave the ship again only 10 hours after arriving at the location, causing no delay for the vessel. According to the satisfied customer the ship is now running ‘the same as before the damage’ and without ‘any unusual vibration or over consumption or overheating of the main engine.’