The cylinder lube oil consum ption rep-

resents a large expenditure for an en-

gine operating w ith the nom inal guiding
feed rate and, especially for the large
bore engines, even a 0.1 g/bhph re-
duction in the cylinder oil dosage repre-
sents a significant yearly saving for the
ow ner. C ylinder lubrication is therefore
an im portant developm ent them e w ith
the aim of reducing the cylinder lube oil
dosage w hile m aintaining a satisfactory
piston ring/liner w ear rate and m ain-
taining or im proving the tim e betw een
overhauls. R educed lube oil consum p-
tion also has a positive im pact on the
environm entas em issions w illbe low er.
The cylinder oil m ust be injected into
the cylinder at the exact position and
tim e w here the effect is optim al, w hich
is not alw ays possible w ith the conven-
tional lubricators of today. M AN B &W
D iesel A/S therefore initiated the devel-
opm ent of the new electronic system ,
the so-called Alpha Lubrication Sys-
tem show n in Fig. 1.
The developm ent w ork for the new
system w as started in 1997, and the
prototype entered service on an M AN
B &W type 7S35M C engine in 1998.
Since then the system has been
fine-tuned on M AN B &W s 4T50M X re-
search engine, and service tests w ere
extended to cover several K90M C en-
gines. The first large bore engine w ith
the new lubricator fitted as standard, a
12K90M C engine, w as tested in Korea
in Septem ber 1999 w ith very satisfac-
tory results, and the system has now
been in service on a num ber of engines
forup to 20,000 hours,w ith good results.
The system is now standard on all
M AN B &W tw o-stroke engines w ith a
diam eter bigger than 600 m m and is an
option on the sm aller engines. The sys-
tem has been ordered for m ore than
100 engines,and 30 sets are in service.
The new lubricating system is based on
the principle of injecting a specific vol-
um e of oil into the cylinder, via a num -
ber of injectors, for every four (or every
five, six, etc.) revolutions. Furtherm ore,
the precise tim ing ensures that all cylin-
der oil is delivered directly onto the pis-
ton ring pack w here it is needed. This
can be seen in Fig. 2, w hich show s the
pressure m easured in the oilinjector
1
To other
cylinders
Cylinder
liner
Cylinder
liner
Accumu-
lator
Lubricator Lubricator
Accumu-
lator
Lubricator
Cylinder oil
service tank
Pump station
with
stand-by pumps
Master control unit and backup control unit
HMI panel
Lubricator
To other
cylinders
To other
cylinders
Solenoid
valve
Solenoid
valve
Solenoid
valve
Solenoid
valve
Feed-back
sensor
Feed-back
sensor
Feed-back
sensor
Tacho
signal
Index
signal
Alarm
system
Slow-down
system
Cylinder lub.
oil pipes
Electrical
connections
Fig. 1: Principle of Alpha Lubricator System
Lubricator System for Cutting the Cylinder
Oil Bill and Reducing Emissions on
MAN B&W Two-Stroke Engines
during a cycle w ith lube oil injection as
w ell as during a cycle w ithout lube oil
injection. The passage of the four pis-
ton rings is clearly seen in the pressure
signal for the cycle w ithout lube oil in-
jection, and the precision of the new lu-
bricator is obvious.
The lubricator itself, Fig. 3, has a sm all
piston for each lubricator quill in the
cylinderliner,and the pow erforinjecting
the oilcom es from the system pressure,
supplied by a pum p station. A com m on
rail system is used on the driving side,
butthe injection side has a high-pressure
positive displacem entsystem ,thus giving
equalam ounts to each quilland provi-
ding the bestpossible safety m argin
againstclogging ofsingle lubricatorquills.
2
90 30 10
0
80 20 0 50 40 70 60 100 [m s]
10
15
5
O il quill pressure
Lube oil
injection pressure
20
[B ar]
Fig. 2: Injection pattern for Alpha Lubricator System
P
A
T
A T
P
Solenoid
valve
Capacitive feedback
sensor for control of
piston movement
Cylinder lube
oil outlet
Outlets
for cylinder liner
lube oil points
Signal for lubrication
from control unit
Spacer
for basic setting of
pump stroke
Adjusting screw Actuator piston
Injection plungers
45 bar cylinder
lube oil inlet
Fig. 3: Alpha Lubricator
For the large bore engines, Fig. 4, each
cylinder has tw o lubricators (each serv-
ing five lube oil quills), w hile the sm all
bore engines, Fig. 5, (w ith few er lube
oil quills per cylinder) are served by one
lubricatorpercylinder.The pum p station
includes tw o pum ps (one operating,
the other on stand-by w ith autom atic
start up).
The com puter unit com prises a m ain
com puter, controlling the norm al oper-
ation, a sw itch-over unit and a (sim ple)
back-up unit. The injection function is
controlled by the com putersending
an on/offsignalto a solenoid valve.A
shaft encoder (w hich can be shared
w ith the PM I system , or tim ing system
on the Intelligent Engine) supplies the
necessary tim ing signal.
The am ount of oil injected can be ad-
justed autom atically or m anually as
required,e.g.atload changes,start/stop,
atreduced engine load (differentm odes
are available), sulphur % in the fuel,
tem perature level on liner surface, vari-
ation in cylinderoilBN ,etc.Pre-lubrication
before startcan be m ade m anually orbe
a sequence in the bridge m anoeuvring
system .
Both form arine engines and forengines
for pow er generation purposes, very
low feed rates have been dem onstrated,
w ith oilconsum ption dow n to 0.5 g/bhph.
Furtherreductions in w earrates as w ell
as in feed rates can be obtained by uti-
lising fuel-oil-sulphur-dependent lubri-
cation, a principle for w hich M AN B &W
has applied for a patent.
3
Fig. 4: 12K98MC-C with Alpha Lubricator
4
Fig. 5: 7S50MC-C with Alpha Lubricator
M AN B &W D iesel A/S
Teglholm sgade 41
D K-2450 C openhagen SV
Telephone: +45 33 85 11 00
Telex: 16592 m anbw dk
Telefax: +45 33 85 10 30
m anbw @ m anbw .dk
w w w .m anbw .dk
C opyright
M AN B &W D iesel A/S
R eproduction perm itted
provided source is given.
M AN B &W D iesel A/S
R eg. N o: 39 66 13 14
August 2001
P.384-01.08