The past twelve months haven’t seen significant changes in the portfolios of pod drive manufacturers – but there are exceptions. HANSA shows which products are on the market
Most of the manufacturers only have made a few technical adjustments in the past year – except ABB. The company has[ds_preview] developed a new propulsion unit, called Azipod XL. According to the developers it is up to 10% more efficient than previous versions. The new linear flow Azipod XL achieves this jump in efficiency by introducing a nozzle with stator plates which directs the water flow from the propeller to reduce the turbulence and energy loss and to give the optimum thrust for the vessel, the ABB informs.
The Azipod XL concept can be designed to give high bollard pull thrust at lower speed and still have good characteristics at higher speeds.
The number of potential users for pod drives and rim thrusters has increased in recent years. This kind of propulsion technology is no longer used only on cruise ships, ferries, mega yachts or offshore ships but also on icegoing and icebreaking vessels and LNG carriers. Experts still see room for development, especially for reducing the housing sizes and the cooling of the gondola.
Brunvoll plans a further development of its RDT concept, an AR RDT retractable solution, to increase the flexibility in terms of effective manoeuvring and to reduce space, noise and vibration. Futhermore the company announced the development of a swing-up RDT version.
