Recently, the owner of the “Kandi Crystal” vessel, which is under repair at Huarun Dadong, reported that when the ship’s steering gear is operating, there is obvious vertical shaking, with an amplitude far exceeding the normal range. They hope the company can repair it as soon as possible.
The skilled and daring repair team quickly determined that the root cause of this problem was the severely excessive clearance of the rudder bearing bush and severe deformation of the rudder bearing seat. After disassembly and inspection, their accurate judgment was further confirmed.
The steering system is the “steering wheel” of a ship, crucial for navigation safety, and the fault must be eliminated immediately. However, this repair faced a huge challenge: the shipowner made a special request that the rudder blade, rudder stock, and rudder tiller could not be dismantled. This meant extremely limited working space and a several-fold increase in construction difficulty. The repair team did not back down. “The harsher the conditions, the more beautifully we must perform!”
The repair team followed a carefully formulated plan and carried out multiple tasks simultaneously: machining the outer diameter of the rudder bearing to repair it; boring the inner hole of the rudder bearing seat to make it round; and replacing all the bearing bushes and thrust friction rings. Since the steering gear cylinder had no power during the ship’s docking and undocking, the technical team specially designed and manufactured tooling fixtures to firmly secure the rudder tiller, strictly preventing the rudder blade from rotating, ensuring construction safety without any risk.
Challenges came one after another. The diameter of the bearing bush and thrust friction ring reached 1300 millimeters. This large specification of tin bronze material had limited stock and was difficult to find on the market. Therefore, from smelting, casting, and blanking to machining and forming, technical personnel were stationed on-site around the clock for seven days and nights, strictly controlling every technical parameter.
Under the difficult working conditions of the “three no-dismantle” requirement, the repair team, relying on their ingenuity and skill, achieved the repair goals as planned: they successfully completed the machining of the bearing bush and thrust friction ring, completely eliminated the vertical shaking problem of the “Kandi Crystal” steering gear, and all technical parameters met the standards. Seeing the high-quality repair results, the shipowner praised the high skill level of the Huarun Dadong workers.
This successful steering gear repair battle is another brilliant demonstration of the craftsmanship spirit of the electromechanical workshop repair team, and another instance of providing high-quality service to the shipowner based on superb technology.
