Lightweight composite gearbox launches at SMM

The company is expecting the product to have a large global potential for use in lightweight, high speed and low energy vessels.

Lighter and stronger materials are increasingly being used everywhere in the marine industry and within a few years they will have substantially altered thinking about shipbuilding. Mekanord’s vision of the future is of a new, revolutionary lightweight gearbox where composites are utilized as a part of the design.

“We have more than 30 years of experience in designing, building and refurbishing gearboxes for marine vessels and the demands for gearboxes, one of a vessel’s most vital parts, are getting increasingly higher. One of the demands that we frequently encounter is for high efficiency and low weight, said Mekanord CEO Søren Klyvø. “This is why we decided two years ago to initiate a scientific project in cooperation with a group of partners, aiming to completely rethink the construction of our gearboxes. The result is a composite gearbox up to 30 % lighter than a traditional one, but which also has a series of other advantages.”

The scientific project gave Mekanord the opportunity to completely rethink the way a gearbox is designed and built. Apart from the issue of weight, Mekanord also wanted to address the challenge of reducing noise levels, one of the main reasons why ultra strong composite was chosen as the perfect material. A common use for composite is the construction of fighter jets.

Søren Klyvø continued, “With the right formula, composite has some completely unique qualities that neither iron nor steel can match. It is a light, strong and rigid material and at the same time very flexible to work with in the production processes. Also, we have designed the new gearbox so that it is much easier, and thereby much cheaper, to service.”

Klyvø is expecting strong interest from shipbuilders and ship architects operating within the field of lightweight boats and catamarans, to whom weight is a deciding factor.