After the owners of a Container Vessel consulted FN Diving regarding heavy vibrations of the propeller which suddenly occurred during sailing, one of the teams attended the vessel for a thorough underwater inspection during ship operations in Rotterdam.
The inspection of the propeller revealed a deformation on one of the blade tips due to impact damage, the blade was found bent up to a 70 degree angle towards pressure side, while the tip of the next blade was broken off.
In cooperation with the Propeller manufacturer, FN Diving determined a repair plan.
Repair operations started directly after inspection.
In order to assure a minimum delay for the vessel, the decision was made to crop off and hydrostatically balance 2 tips in a way to maintain the propellers hydro-dynamic requirements.
The deformed blade was straightened using the underwater propeller repair apparatus, specially designed for bending propeller blades due to ice or impact damage.
The Damaged propeller blade was directly straightened underwater by an FN Diving operations team bringing the blade back as close to the original design possible to restore optimum performance and efficiency of the propeller.
Within 9 hours all blades were cropped, straightened and hydro-dynamically reshaped, allowing the vessel to continue her voyage with no vibrations noted during sailing.
The swift operation was possible due to a smooth cooperation between the FN Diving team, the ships staff and the propeller manufacturer, resulting in a cost and time effective solution for the vessel.
[mappress] Press Release, November 27, 2012