Kongsberg Maritime has won a deal with Med Marine to delivery 32 US series thrusters for use on new azimuth stern drive (ASD) tugboats.
KM’s US series thrusters are a popular choice for both ASD tugs and the tug market in general with more than 6,000 units delivered in the past 50 or so years.
“In the maritime industry you can’t get much more demanding than the duty cycle of a tug’s azimuth drive unit,” said Yıldız Bozkurt Özcan, general manager at Med Marine.
“Following three decades of fitting Kongsberg thrusters into our tugs we know that with the US series thrusters we are making a solid investment for our customers in a well-proven, reliable product that has evolved to keep up with the demands placed by our modern, high bollard pull tugs.”
The US Series thrusters now have project-specific computation fluid dynamics modelling capabilities, together with a range of propeller and nozzle combinations.
Another recent feature is the HD slipping clutch which is said to enable cost efficient fire-fighting operations. Three of the 16 Med Marine tugs will also feature KM’s Pro-Duct nozzle, a high efficiency nozzle and propeller combination that the company says provides higher bollard pull for the same power input as an equivalent TK nozzle.
