Marine Gears

as an example to explain the need for

multiple engines. A smaller warship,
a frigate may have as many as three
engines: a gas turbine able to transmit

Special Aspects for 20,000–30,000 kilowatts of power and

two diesel engines, each one able to

High Performance
transmit 4,000–8,000 kilowatts.
The different engines are necessary
because a ship operates in different
Joseph L. Hazelton, Associate Editor environments and speed modes: loiter,
cruise and fast. In a harbor, the frigate
has to move slowly, carefully. Its speed
engine, the gas turbine, isn’t suitable,
so it switches to its lower-power diesel
engines.
To do that, the crew may also need
to switch from one gear train to another.
This switch involves activating and
deactivating various clutches in the gear
system, in a certain sequence, disengaging
some gears and engaging others so the box
achieves the right reduction ratio between
the online engine and the propeller.
These gearboxes have resulted in an
alphabet soup of marine gearbox types:
CODAD, CODAG, CODOG and so
on. For instance, CODAG refers to a
combined gearbox able to transmit power
from a ship’s diesel engine and/or its gas
turbine. The box can transmit power from
Photo courtesy of ZF Marine GmbH. both engines, driving two propeller shafts
A gearbox that absorbs 30 percent of harbor or on the open sea. This situation, at the same time. CODOG, on the other
external forces, transmits power from two multiple sources of power, contrasts hand, is the acronym for a combined
engines operating at different speeds, and starkly with non-marine gearboxes. gearbox able to transmit power from a
uses gears that meet several design and “Normally, you have just one input ship’s diesel engine or its gas turbine.
specification standards at the same time. for non-marine gears,” says Franz Hoppe, Marine gearboxes connected to two or
Many gear manufacturers would general manager–marine for Renk AG. more engines include commercial vessels,
wrinkle their brows at this unusual Hoppe estimates that more than 90 percent like ferries and other roll-on, roll-off
box. But what’s odd to them would be of non-marine gears have only one input. ships. Also, high-speed yachts can feature
ordinary to marine gear manufacturers. In a larger marine vessel, the multiple two gas turbines with power output via
The above features are commonplace in inputs may be gas turbines, electric waterjets, not propellers. Waterjets allow
high performance marine gears and their motors or diesel engines. Depending for much more condensed output of the
boxes, which are used in vessels as wide on the combination, the power sources engines’ power.
ranging as luxury yachts, fast ferry boats, often operate at different speeds, so they “They’re providing much higher
frigates and workboats. require gear trains with different reduction speeds,” Hoppe says. “With waterjets,
Given these features, marine gear ratios. you can reach up to 50–60 knots [about
manufacturers often have to create The trains are usually combined inside 60–70 mph].”
gearboxes that are much more compli- a gearbox, with one train for the primary No Infinitely Stiff Foundation
cated than their non-marine counterparts. engine and one for the secondary. Further Marine gear manufacturers also have
Connected to Multiple Engines complicating the box’s design is that to keep in mind that their gears and boxes
Whether a luxury yacht or a massive both trains may be connected to one or will lack what are considered infinitely
warship, many larger marine vessels more output shafts. Also, the gear trains stiff foundations. The problem isn’t the
have two or more engines and use certain can overlap; they can share gears. gears, their box, its immediate base, or
ones based on whether they’re in a small Hoppe uses a modern naval frigate the ship itself. The problem is the water.
26 MAY/JUNE 2006 • G E A R T E C H N O L O G Y • w w w . g e a rtechnology.com • www.powertransmission.com
It’s not stiff. Even when calm and in a
sheltered harbor, water isn’t a road or a
rigid, stationary platform.
Still, gear mesh mustn’t be affected
by even rough waters.
“Stiffness is most important to have
reliable tooth contact between the gears,”
Hoppe says.
That reliable contact is no small
feat given that a characteristic of
high performance marine gears is
their mechanical efficiency. At ZF
Friedrichshafen AG, Gerald Rowe, R&D
manager–marine transmissions, puts that
efficiency at 99 percent tooth contact
between pinion and bull gear.
To keep gears in mesh, their casings
are strengthened with ribs or built with a
A Complex Gearbox—The combined marine gearbox here, a CODAG, can simultaneously transmit power
double-wall design. “The casing has to be from a diesel engine and a gas turbine or can transmit power from one or the other separately. Such
as stiff as possible, always,” says André complicated gearboxes are common among many larger marine vessels. Photo courtesy of Renk AG.
Thuswaldner, chief design engineer
for Maag Gear AG. Thuswaldner is least 25 knots (29 mph), are considered The need to avoid tooth failure is
responsible for the initial design of his high performance. These ships include critical, especially with larger ships. If the
company’s marine gears. luxury yachts, patrol boats and high- gears are in motion, the vessel is likely
Overcoming water as foundation is speed ferries. under way. If a tooth fails then, the ship
necessary, though, for high performance Accounting for power and speed, isn’t in charge of its movement anymore,
marine gears to provide their high Thuswaldner defines a high performance the water is.
performance. But what constitutes marine gearbox as having a power/weight The problem is serious when it occurs
high performance? What measurable ratio of more than 1.5 kilowatts/kilogram on the open sea, like in the middle of
characteristics define a high performance or operating at a pitch-line velocity of at the Atlantic Ocean. In that case, the ship
marine gear? least 120 meters per second. would need to be towed into port. But it’s
What is a High Performance Another characteristic is high more serious if the vessel is maneuvering
Marine Gear? reliability. Hoppe defines that as: “Never in harbor. A tooth failure then and the
The answer is more elusive than having a gear tooth or bearing failure.” vessel could collide with nearby ships,
might be expected because physical, At Maag, Christoph Blättler, general damaging them and maybe killing
performance and other characteristics vary manager for sales–marine gear units, is people.
considerably. A high performance marine number-specific. He says naval gears Given these consequences, marine
gear’s size can range from 300 mm to 5 have to be designed for 99.95 percent gear manufacturers are very much
meters. Also, marine gears can transmit reliability, with the overall gearbox having concerned with avoiding gear failure,
as little as 225 kilowatts of power and still a reliability of 99.8 or 99.9 percent. whether due to the gears themselves or
be considered high performance.
The other end of the power range
is more open. Tom Wampler, chief
engineer–marine design for Twin Disc
Inc., says high performance marine gears’
maximum power can reach “astronomical
numbers.” Renk’s Hoppe provides a
maximum—50,000 kilowatts—but he
adds the upper end can go as high as a
customer needs: “We are not limited on
the upper side.”
High performance marine gears can
Designed for Space, Weight—Marine vessels often require more complicated gear arrangements, such
also mean speed, not just power. The gears as planetary gear systems, so their gearboxes meet space and weight restrictions. Such complicated
inside “fast craft,” vessels capable of at gearboxes are common among many larger marine vessels. Photo courtesy of Maag Gear AG.
w w w . p o w e r t r a n s m i s s i o n . c o m • w ww.geartechnology.com • G E A R T E C H N O L O G Y • M A Y /J U N E 2 006 27
 and an output. “That makes the gearbox
very simple and very cheap, but heavy,”
Thuswaldner says.
The heaviness would be a main
problem and a major reason for a planetary
gear design. Weight matters, after all, in
terms of a vessel’s fuel consumption and
handling characteristics. The planetary
gear design’s overall effect would be to
allow the marine gearbox to be smaller
and weigh less.
Built to Meet Multiple Standards
Whatever the gear arrangement,
though, high performance marine gears
often have to be manufactured to meet
several standards simultaneously.
An Unstable Foundation—A marine gearbox has to be designed and manufactured to compensate for the This situation can occur, for example,
lack of stiffness in what is—in the ultimate sense—its true platform: water. Photo courtesy of Renk AG. if a prospective owner isn’t sure in
what country he’ll register the ship he’s
having built. The country matters because
due to external forces. Designed to Fit Space each one may have its own design and
Resistant to External Forces Less unusual than being built for specification standards for marine vessels,
Marine gearboxes must be able extreme external forces, marine gears, and all ships registered with that country
to resist external forces, like those like other gears, have to be designed to fit must meet those standards, which are
introduced into the box’s foundation from in a limited space with a predetermined administered by classification societies.
the surrounding structure or vibrational shape and still provide all their required In the United States, the society is the
forces from the propeller and propeller performance. American Bureau of Shipping, known as
shaft. To an extent, resisting external “That is the challenge for the design ABS. In Italy, it’s the Registro Italiano
forces means being able to absorb them. engineer when it comes to marine gears,” Navale, RINA.
That extent can be considerable in Thuswaldner says. He adds that the “Each society has its own methods
high performance marine gears. Hoppe space can sometimes require making the for calculating gears,” says Rowe of ZF.
says gear assemblies for non-marine gearbox more complicated than it would He adds that calculation results can vary
applications normally absorb a maximum otherwise have to be: “But that’s life in as much as 65 percent from society to
of 20 percent of the amplitude of external marine gearboxes.” society.
forces, but marine assemblies absorb 30 As an example, Thuswaldner com- Knowing the various standards is also
percent of non-transient forces and up pares a marine gearbox for a gas turbine necessary when a company makes marine
to factor 2 transient forces. The extra capable of generating 22 megawatts gears for customers from many different
absorbency helps the marine gearbox of power at 330 rpm and an industrial countries. In either case, when the marine
avoid breakage. gearbox capable of the same output but gear manufacturer doesn’t know which
Without the extra amount, the built for a mill drive. The boxes’ lengths classification rules may be applied, it
gearbox’s bearing assembly could and heights would be the same but the designs its transmissions to account for
overload, disrupting the oil film, which industrial gearbox would be more than 50 all possibilities.
would immediately damage the bearing, percent wider than the marine one. Having to meet several standards at
causing the gears to stop. At that point, The smaller width would be achieved one time, to design for different power
the vessel wouldn’t be propelling itself; with a different basic design. The marine sources in one gearbox, and to compensate
the water would be. gearbox would be a double-stage planetary for the lack of a stiff foundation—these
Besides natural external forces, some gear system with as many planets as considerations increase the complexity
vessels—naval vessels—have to be built possible, while the industrial one would of designing and manufacturing high
to handle shock forces from man-made be a double-stage parallel-shaft gearbox. performance marine gears and gearboxes,
objects. Think large ammunition, like The marine box would have 16 gears, especially when they’re used in vessels
torpedoes. Hoppe says shock forces can an input shaft and an output one. The as diverse as coastal workboats, luxury
be up to 50 g (500 meters/second2). “These industrial box would consist of four gears yachts and oceangoing warships.
are very high acceleration forces.” and three shafts: an input, an intermediate, As Twin Disc’s Wampler says:
28 MAY/JUNE 2006 • G E A R T E C H N O L O G Y • w w w . g e a rtechnology.com • www.powertransmission.com
“There’s no such thing as a run-of-the-
mill, suits-all-things marine gear.” CUSTOM ENGINEERED & MANUFACTURED

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Fax: (262) 638-4481
Internet: www.twindisc.com
Correction 1
ZF Marine GmbH
Gear Technology’s January/February 2006 issue included a paragraph that required additional
D-88038 Friedrichshafen information to be understandable. The paragraph appeared on page 54, in the article “Investigation
Germany of the Noise and Vibration of Planetary Gear Drives.” The paragraph was under the subsection
Phone: +(49) 7541-77-2207 heading “Measured vibration results for planet gears in vehicle tests.”
Fax: +(49) 7541-77-4222
The additional information, underlined here, should have appeared in the paragraph as follows:
E-mail: [email protected] “. . . were made under a condition of gradual acceleration in first and fourth gears. Another way to
Internet: www.zf.com achieve a meshing phase difference is to use unequally spaced planet gears as shown for planetary
gear set II in Table 2. As seen in the figure, the vibration acceleration level of planetary gear set
II with a meshing phase difference achieved by the use of unequally spaced planet gears was
approximately 3–12 dB lower than that of planetary gear set I without a meshing phase difference.
Better results . . . .”

Correction 2
In the March/April 2006 issue of Gear Technology’s article titled “Medical Device Manufacturing
Keeps Gear Industry Healthy,” we mistakenly identified Precipart Corp.’s location. Precipart Corp.
is located in Farmingdale, NY, not Farmingdale, CT.

Correction 3
In the March/April issue of Gear Technology, the Gleason Genesis 130H CNC was featured with
a misleading headline. The cycle time of the loader mechanism was one second and the machine’s
cycle time is two or two-and-a-half-seconds.
We apologize for the errors.
Comment on this article
by sending e-mail to —The Editors
[email protected]

w w w . p o w e r t r a n s m i s s i o n . c o m • w ww.geartechnology.com • G E A R T E C H N O L O G Y • M A Y /J U N E 2 006 29