Paper 34: Lubrication in a Marine Environment *

Abstract

The lubrication of machinery in a marine environment is not without challenges for researchers, designers and operators. These challenges stem in navy ships from the presence of salt water and salt-bearing air in contact with machinery already designed to the outside limits of high output and light weight. Thus, to users of machinery in a marine environment, the mastery over sea water is directly related to machinery reliability, maintainability and capability. For a machinery user such as a navy there are some additional lubrication problems caused by the need to conserve space in machinery design and the need to proceed quietly.

This paper will be concerned with five machinery lubrication problems arising from the marine environment. They may be considered typical of and peculiar to that environment. They are timely because their solutions must be shared in by those in research and design as well as by the machinery operators.

The cases are as follows:

• (a)

The protection of vapour spaces in operating turbines by volatile rust-inhibiting chemicals in the lubricating oil.

(b)

The operation of petroleum oil hydraulic systems in the presence of sea-water intrusion.

(c)

The selection of lubricating greases for quiet ball bearings.

(d)

The development of a lubricant for a ‘marinized’ aviation gas turbine.

(e)

The lubrication of diesel engines of such weight-to-output ratio as to be competitive with steam and gas turbine propulsion.

Each case will be presented by reviewing the background of the problems, the approaches considered in their solutions, the status of the solutions and expected future developments.