Paper 4: Epicyclic Gears for Medium-Speed Diesel Engines

Abstract

The recent emergence of high-powered medium-speed diesel engines has provided marine gear engineers with an incentive to develop products such that marine propulsion installations can be evolved which will provide a radical alternative to the direct driven, slow-speed diesel engines which currently dominate the largest sector of the market for power at sea. This paper briefly reviews the changes in ship and machinery design and application which have dictated the need for optimum propulsion units and describes the resulting requirements that are imposed upon the gear units. These requirements are discussed in relation to a range of epicyclic gear units which appear to represent an optimum design solution for a particular sector of the market for power at sea.