Specifics of Shafting Alignmentfor Ships in Service

Modern ships are means of transport which, during their entire operational lifespan, need to convey cargo and/or passengers in a safe and reliable way, without jeopardising their safety, and with least possible adverse impacts on the marine environment. The ship’s safety and functionality directly depend on the reliability of her propulsion system, the shafting being the essential unit of the system. The functionality of the ship’s shafting considerably depends on its correct installation. Installation of the ship propulsion shafting is an integral part of the overall positioning (alignment) procedure. Shafting alignment is performed in several stages, starting with the shaft line design, and includes calculating the elastic line and bearing loads, installation of shafting parts onboard ship in compliance with the calculation results, and verifying the alignment results. Procedures are different for ships in service and newly built ships. This paper deals with specific features of the propulsion shafting alignment that is carried out while a ship in service is being converted for a general reason. Unlike a newly built ship, an existing ship imposes additional constraints that should be dealt with in the calculation stage of the process as well as during shafting installation and alignment verification. A calculation approach for ships in service is always different, having specific features from case to case, depending on what is changed and what remains unchanged during the conversion of the ship. The same goes for the implementation and verification of the achieved results. The purpose of this paper is to underline the difference, its contribution being in suggesting the procedure to be followed in case of conversion of an existing vessel. KEY WORDS: ship in service, shafting, alignment, GAP, SAG