Transducers help optimise engines afloat

When Malin Instruments required a tailor-made pressure transducer for its portable ship engine-analysing system, the company turned to force measurement specialist Thames Side-Maywood.

When Malin Instruments required a tailor-made pressure transducer for its portable ship engine-analysing system, the company turned to force measurement specialist Thames Side-Maywood.

Malin needed a transducer to monitor the changing pressures within engine cylinders.

It had to provide repeatable readings under harsh conditions, in particular the high and fluctuating temperatures, and extreme vibrations, found in marine engine rooms.

Thames Side-Maywood worked closely with Malin, drawing on its wealth of experience in transducer design and manufacture.

The company developed an oil-filled transducer surrounded by vanes.

The oil dampens vibration and the vanes dissipate heat, providing a stable reading.

The data provided by the transducer is invaluable for maintaining the engine, keeping mechanical and thermal stress as low as possible.

Ship engines are extremely powerful with many cylinders, and balancing is extremely important.

They must be timed correctly as misfires can be highly destructive.

The Malin 6000 uses the transducer to provide a pressure trace which is synchronised with the rotation of the engine.

As well as helping to balance the cylinders, the rate and final value of the pressure can help to improve the engine's fuel consumption.

They give a direct indication of the quality of the sealing of the cylinder, deficiencies in, for example, piston rings, and any reduction in turbo performance.

The system has proved very successful for Malin.

It shows if all the cylinders are compressing properly, if injection is progressing correctly, helps to fix the ignition point to a better accuracy, and improves fuel economy.

It helps relieve undue stresses on, and excitation of, the engine components thereby reducing engine failure.

This helps increase the time between services because the seals and bearings and engine blocks are not under such high pressure and therefore the engines last longer.

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