Thordon Bearings News

Bronze bearings in the stern roller of the Anchor Handling Tug Supply (AHTS) Vessel ES Kestrel have been replaced with grease-free SXL bearings from Thordon Bearings while the vessel remained afloat and operational. The replacement was undertaken in May 2024 by Thordon’s Dubai-based distributor Ocean Power International (OPI) for the AHTS owner Echo Cargo & Shipping of U.A.E. While typically checked during routine drydocking, the vessel’s stern roller was experiencing turning is...

Representing a breakthrough in the evolution of a ship’s propeller shaft line, Canada’s Thordon Bearings has unveiled the Thordon-Blue Ocean Stern Space (T-BOSS), a new solution designed to meet the propeller shaft requirements of the sterntubeless ship design proposed by the Blue Ocean Alliance. Introduced to the global maritime industry at the SMM trade fair in Hamburg, Germany, the new T-BOSS propeller shaft arrangement includes Thordon’s award-winning COMPAC polymer bearin...

Thordon Bearings’ brake cups are being supplied to Hydro-Québec, the largest hydropower company in Canada, as part of a decade-long turbine brake system overhaul program. The Burlington-based bearing and seal specialist is providing the brake cups to its Canadian distributor RMH Industries, an integrated company specialising in mechanical and hydraulic repair and machining of oversized parts. RMH Industries has been manufacturing and repairing brake blocks for Hydro-Québec s...

Thordon Bearings has secured an order from French shipbuilding giant Chantiers de l'Atlantique to supply its award-winning COMPAC seawater-lubricated propeller shaft bearings for installation to a pair of wind-assisted passenger ships operated by luxury travel operator Accor. When the first 220m (722 ft) long, 22,300 gt vessel is delivered in 2026, Orient Express Corinthian will be the world’s largest contemporary sailship. The contract marks Thordon’s first reference aboard a Chant...

Vard Marine Inc. (VARD), a Fincantieri company, has proudly launched VIGILANCE, as their solution to replace the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) Kingston Class Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels (MCDV) under Pillar Two of Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS). In conjunction with Team Vigilance partner companies - Thales Canada, Ontario Shipyards, SH Defence, and Fincantieri, VIGILANCE will provide the RCN with a lightweight and operationally flexible military asset that is highly...

Future newbuild ships of all types should be built without a sterntube and with a seawater-lubricated propeller shaft bearing arrangement, according to Blue Ocean Alliance’s Chris Leontopoulos. Speaking at a recent maritime industry forum in Hamburg, Mr. Leontopoulos said the sterntubeless ship design – jointly developed by Blue Ocean Alliance members ABS, Thordon Bearings, Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute (SDARI), Wärtsilä, and the National Technical...

Thordon Bearings has secured a significant contract to convert the rubber tailshaft bearings across an entire fleet of Panama-operating tugs, pilot vessels, and workboats to water-lubricated polymer bearings. The agreement with the unnamed operator follows the successful retrofitting of Thordon’s SXL tailshaft bearings to twelve of its twin-screw tugs last year during scheduled dry dockings. The remaining 32 vessels will now be converted in batches at planned maintenance intervals over th...

Gelose Marine Services Ltd. has joined Thordon Bearings’ extensive network of authorised distributors to further the ‘greening’ of Nigeria’s fleet of domestic and international vessels with more sustainable bearing solutions. Based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, Gelose has a diverse services portfolio, ranging from maritime security and vessel management to technical support, ship repair, and dry dockings with its own 400t ship lift capability shipyard. The com...

Thordon Bearings, the pioneer in water-lubricated bearings, secured a new order for a rudder bearing that was fitted to a 77.1 m (253 ft) research ship that frequently operates in ecologically sensitive marine environments. The order underscores the value of Thordon’s grease-free bearing and seal solutions in helping to keep oceans and seas clean. The 38-year-old Ocean Endeavour, operated by the UK’s Gardline, a multi-disciplinary marine survey company that operates a fleet of 13...

Fincantieri’s Sestri Ponente (Genoa) shipyard in Italy is scheduled to take delivery of Thordon’s COMPAC open seawater-lubricated propeller shaft bearing system for installation to the second ship in Oceania Cruises’ Allura class, which is scheduled to join the Miami-based company’s fleet in 2025. The twin screw Oceania Allura will feature three COMPAC bearings per shaft to fit propeller shaft diameters of 510mm (20.7in). The same scope was supplied to the 67,000gt first...

Asia Pacific Maritime (APM), the largest meeting place in Southeast Asia for the global maritime value chain, will return for its 18th installment in Singapore from 13 to 15 March 2024 at the Marina Bay Sands.  The premier exhibition and conference is expected to bring together more than 14,000 shipowners, shipyards, ship management, and technical procurers to meet over 1,400 solutions providers.  Solutions and services “For the past few months, we have been reconnecting with...

Thordon Bearings’ ThorPlas-Blue grease-free bearings won the annual IBJ Environment Protection (Marine) Award 2023 during a gala dinner last night hosted by British comedian Hugh Dennis and International Bulk Journal publisher Ray Girvan. Thordon Bearings was also nominated in the Innovative Technology Award category for the same product. Designed and developed by Thordon, the polymer deck equipment bearings not only eliminate the risk of pollution from greasing systems, but also offer...

Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) has joined the major classification societies to amend its rules relating to the inspection of seawater-lubricated propeller shaft systems. The amendment means that ships with open seawater-lubricated propeller shafts that are built to ClassNK rules are subject to the same 15-year shaft withdrawal inspection periods as oil-lubricated shafts and stern-tubes, subject to monitoring criteria. ClassNK amends rules for seawater-lubricated shafts The announcement brings...

When a 9,280hp workboat returned to service following extensive repairs at the James Marine Paducah River Service yard in Kentucky, U.S.A., it marked the first application of Thordon’s new seal-embedded bearing to an articulating rudder. Articulating rudders Articulating rudders are unlike conventional rudders and can be more costly to repair, when things go wrong. They are more susceptible to wear and tear, due to the higher operating pressures and abrasives, and as a result, require a...

In what marks a relatively new application for Thordon Bearings’ pioneering polymer material, Wilson Ship Management ASA (“Wilson”), a Norway-based ship manager, has replaced the greased bronze bearings on the hatch cover wheels of some of its dry cargo vessels with self-lubricating ThorPlas-Blue bearings. Wilson, which operates Europe’s largest short sea fleet of about 130 general cargo vessels, has now converted eight vessels following the success of the first retrofit...

Thordon Bearings’ Egyptian distributor and integrated services provider Nefertiti Marine has successfully commissioned the water-lubricated Thordon SXL propeller shaft bearings installed aboard the 24,112gt ferry Daleela. The 1991-built, 400-passenger capacity RoPax, owned by El-Etehad International and chartered to Scandro Holdings, began operations on the revived Piraeus–Limassol route in June 2022 following an extensive refit in the floating dock operated by the Suez Shipyar...

Mark W. Barker, the first new U.S flagged Great Lakes bulker in almost 40 years, has successfully completed sea trials and will now begin trading throughout the freshwater lakes and river networks, with oil-free propeller shaft bearings from Thordon Bearings. Built in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, United States of America (USA), by Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding (Fincantieri Marine Group) for The Interlake Steamship Company, Thordon Bearings’ scope of supply includes a water lubricated RiverToug...

Thordon Bearings’ authorised distributor in Mexico, TZ Industrias, has secured an order to supply the Canadian company’s TG100 shaft seals, equipped with a safe return to port (SRTP) emergency seal, to a quartet of shrimpers operated by Pesquera Axel, one of the country’s leading fishing vessel operators. Bearings and seals TZ Industrias will deliver four 127mm (5in) diameter mechanical seals to the Mazatlán-based repair yard Constructora y Reparadora de Buques for ins...

Thordon Bearings welcomes the announcement by classification society ABS to award Approval in Principle to the ‘sterntube-less ship’ concept developed in cooperation with the Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute (SDARI), the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and Thordon Bearings Inc. The revolutionary design replaces a vessel’s sterntube with an irregular shaped chamber that allows a shorter, water-lubricated propeller shaft to be inspected and m...

Thordon Bearings reports increasing demand for its COMPAC water-lubricated propeller shaft bearings, as superyacht operators and managers opt for more environmentally friendly propulsion solutions. Since the first installation of its system to the 2007 Italian-built 1540 metres (5053 feet) long Savarona superyacht, Thordon Bearings now has more than forty superyacht references for the award-winning COMPAC system, the most recent of which being the Blue Bird of 1938. Clean propulsion solutions...

Thordon Bearings has signed a multi-vessel supply agreement for a range of water-lubricated and grease-free bearings for installation to several fleet boats under construction, at the FMT Shipyard & Repair facility in Louisiana, U.S.A. for workboat owner - Maritime Partners. Twelve twin-screw push boats are scheduled to be delivered from the Louisiana-based shipyard with equipment that includes RiverTough tailshaft bearings, ThorPlas-Blue rudder bearings with Pucker Seals, ThorPlas-Blue ste...

A new video highlighting how improved technology can be used to help the global shipping industry meet its ocean sustainability targets has been produced by Canada’s Thordon Bearings. Addressing environmental footprint The short video aims to encourage the shipping industry to adopt, ‘New Technologies for Greener Shipping’ the IMO’s World Maritime theme for 2022 as a way of addressing wide-reaching concerns over the sector’s environmental footprint. Focusing on S...

The southern hemisphere’s first fully electric, carbon fibre commuter ferry has completed its inaugural round trip with a Thordon seawater lubricated propeller shaft arrangement supplied by New Zealand’s Henley Engineering. Ika Rere, Mãori for flying fish, joined the East by West fleet in December operating the company’s Wellington to Eastbourne route. Fast, efficient, and smooth Commenting on the ferry’s first trip, between West Queen’s Wharf and Days B...

Ship owners, operators and managers responding to an environmental survey, carried out by Canadian-based McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business, have acknowledged the need to reduce operational oil leakage from propeller shafts, but a lack of understanding about cleaner alternatives is preventing any meaningful technological change. Environmental survey Researchers questioned more than 1000 marine industry professionals in 2021, in order to better understand why the majority o...

Thordon Bearings has unveiled the BlueWater Seal, a new propeller shaft seal with a unique Safe Return to Port (SRTP) design that specifically meets commercial shipping industry needs for low maintenance and robust shaft seal. The Thordon BlueWater Seal completes the COMPAC open seawater lubricated propeller shaft bearing system. Commercial-grade axial lip seal Taking the company’s TG100 and SeaThigor seal products as the technical benchmark, the Thordon BlueWater Seal is a cost-effectiv...

A Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) icebreaker is helping to keep shipping moving on the Great Lakes throughout the winter with a set of Thordon Bearings’ propeller shaft bearings that were fitted more than 30 years ago. Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Griffon, the oldest vessel of the CCG’s Type 1100 series, was retrofitted with a set of four Thordon XL polymer stave bearings in 1990, 20 years into her service life. Sister ships received Thordon bearings from new throughout the 1980s....