Composite Becoming the Bearing of Choice for Cutterhead Dredges (Pic)

Thordon Composite cutterhead shaft bearings have been recently installed or ordered on six cutter suction dredgers in Europe, China and the Middle East. Thordon Composite is a tough two-component elastomeric polymer alloy bearing specifically formulated to provide superior wear life in very abrasive water conditions. Thordon Composite bearings operating in combination with a hard stainless steel shaft or hard coated shaft liner such as Ni-Cr-B, routinely outwear rubber bearings by a factor of two or more, significantly reducing maintenance downtime and costs over the operating life of the dredge. "Archirodon Dredging Construction (Overseas) Co. S.A, of United Arab Emirates has been using Thordon Composite dredge bearings since 1999 and they have performed better than we expected", says Panos Zoglopitis, Mechanical Engineer for Archirodon Dredging Division. "These bearings last longer than rubber bearings. We have installed Thordon Composite on CSD Pontos and CSD Aetos and plan to continue using Thordon Composite bearings and staves." Other Cutter Suction Dredgers to be equipped or having had Thordon installed recently, include Zeeland II owned by Van Oord Ship Management B.V., Netherlands, Huta Sete 07 owned by Huta-Sete Marine Works Ltd., Saudi Arabia, Jin Hang Jun 215 owned by Tianjin Waterway Bureau, China and CSD 8060 owned by Jan de Nul of Belgium. National Marine Dredging Company of U.A.E has also been using Thordon Composite dredge bearings since 1996 with installations on five of their dredgers. The recently built jumbo dredger, D'Artagnan, owned by S.D.I. S.A. (Soci¨¦t¨¦ De Dragage International), France, also has water lubricated Thordon Composite intermediate lineshaft bearings installed in addition to the Composite cuttherhead shaft bearings.