News

Thordon Bearings has updated its TG100 seal installation requirements to facilitate cost-effective installation at all shipyards with the release of new instructional videos. Shipyard staff can quickly and easily install the state-of-the-art seal themselves, reducing the overall costs of TG100 procurement.

Demonstrating confidence in its bearings to withstand the rigours of turbine operation, Thordon Bearings announced today at the HydroVision International trade show in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., that it now offering its self-lubricating ThorPlas-Blue range of wicket gate and operating mechanism bearings with a 15 year wearlife guarantee.

Activation of Thordon Bearings’ revolutionary inflatable emergency seal prevented a 70ft (21m) long workboat from certain sinking in February, following multiple shaft failures that damaged the vessel’s primary shaft seal.

Media reports indicating the potential volume of lubricating oil polluting the world’s seas and oceans due to shaft seal damage or failure should send a clear message to Administrations that this frequently overlooked source of pollution needs to be quickly addressed.

The water-lubricated SXL turbine guide bearings Thordon installed as part of the re-powering of Norway’s Raanaasfoss 1 hydro plant have experienced almost zero wear after 23,887 hours of continuous operation on the first installed unit. During routine inspections of the 13.5 MW turbines, commissioned by Voith Hydro in 2013, the guide bearings – the operator’s first experience with water-lubricated bearings – showed “almost no wear at all”, with a measured diametric bearing clearance less than 0.30mm (0.012”) on the longest running Unit 1. All remaining turbines (Units 2 to 6) had very low measured diametric clearances of between 0.30 and 0.50mm (0.012” and 0.020”).

At the beginning of Q2 Thordon sent out our annual End User Survey to get feedback as part of our continuous improvement initiative to maintain our high quality standards and to help us serve our customers better. We examined four industry segments separately to determine both the overall satisfaction, and to track performance within each industry: Marine, Hydro & Clean Power, Pump, and Industrial.