Keller, a German manufacturer of special gearboxes, in Autumn 2015 received the request from the Chinese dredging company CCCC Shanghai Dredging Co., Ltd. for the modification and upgrade of the cutter drive aboard the cutter suction dredger Xin Hai Kun.
The new design required a power increase of up to 1,700 kW.
To fulfill this request, the ladder had to be redesigned to take a much larger gearbox, and also extended to 30 meters, instead of the original 27 meters.
The gearbox was designed and manufactured by Keller accordingly and will arrive in China early next month.
A curiosity of this gearbox is the fact that the cutter gearbox is directly placed behind the cutter head which operates up to 30 meter under water.
In other words, the complete gearbox needed to be absolutely watertight under consideration of 3 bar pressure.
To fulfill these requests, detailed FEM (Finite Elements Analyses) of the gearbox housing had to be made.
The German manufacturer also designed and supplied the control system of the hydraulic plant and turn drive, which could also be operated tele-controlled.