[ marine / in detail]

[ marine / in detail]

The Airguard seal system continues

to be upgraded, even after 20 years
Au t h o r : A n d y Ed wards , Regional Sales Manager for Northern Europe, Seals & Bearings, Wrtsil in the U.K.

The Airguard oil-pollution-free seal

system was originally developed
some 20 years ago. It came as one
of the companys many responses to
the environmental regulations and
restrictions that have continued to
affect the marine sector since the
1980s. The first Airguard system was
installed in 1988. Market demands,
however, continue to change and so
development work continues.

Spacer ring

#3-seal ring
#2-seal ring
Holes for air supply and drain
#1-seal ring

Air escaping holes

The first stage in the development process

was to analyse those factors that had an
impact on the life of the seal ring, in
order to identify performance targets
for the new seal system. The analysis
focused on the following critical factors:
n Contact with water or contaminated oil,
n Peripheral speed,
n Radial load,
n Heat radiation,
n Foreign objects.
As a result of this work, the
concepts for the Airguard system
were identified as follows:
n Complete separation of the oil and
seawater to be achieved by providing
an air seal chamber in the aft seal.
n A consistent radial load on the seal
rings to be achieved via automatic
pressure control from an air control
unit, which by regulating the pressure
in each of the aft seal chambers,
provides a constant rate of airflow.
n Inboard collection of automatically
drained water and/or oil
from the air chamber.
n A maintenance free operation with
simple troubleshooting measures.
With the Airguard system, compressed
air is blown into the air chamber between
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#0-seal ring
P-ring

Air escaping holes

Fig. 1 Airguard 4AS-B aft seal assembly.

4AS-Bs Oil pressure in #2-#3 seal chamber is

about 0,015MPa higher than 3ASs oil pressure
about 0,015MPa
about 0,015MPa

4AS-B

Fig. 2 Pressure balance of Airguard 4AS-B and 3AS.

3AS

wrtsil technical journal 01.2007

seal rings #2 and #3, at a pressure slightly

greater than that of the exterior seawater.
The differential pressure between the air
in the air chamber and that of the seawater
is automatically maintained at a constant
level by a flow controller located in the
engine room. Air flows into the seawater
underneath seal rings #1 and #2,
causing these lip rings to be raised slightly
from the liner. This results in greatly
reduced wear to the seal ring and liner.
As a function of the air pressure in the
air barrier chamber, the sterntube oil
system is maintained at a slightly higher
pressure than the air pressure. Therefore,
under all conditions including loaded
draught, ballast draught and heavy waves,
the optimum lowest operating pressures
for the entire system are maintained.
Since its first installation in 1988, the
exceptional reliability of this Airguard
3AS sealing system has proven itself with
more than 600 installations on many
different types of vessel. This performance
reliability also made it suitable as the seal
device for the contra rotating propeller
(CRP) propulsion system, with which
VLCCs are equipped. In this application,
the seal unit consists of two parts; the
sterntube seal and the contra rotating
seal, and must be capable of operating
under very severe conditions. The liner
is mounted on the forward propeller,
and the seal casing on the aft propeller.
Thus the liner and seal casing rotate in
opposite directions, resulting in a higher
sliding speed between the lip seal rings
and liner, and in greater eccentricity than
is possible with conventional seal devices.
The 4AS-B and 3AS-B sealing systems
Nevertheless, market demands for cost
reductions and system simplification,
together with the fact that container
ships are being built with everincreasing load capacities, meant that
development work on the Airguard
system has been ongoing. The 4AS-B
and 3AS-B sealing systems are a result
of this continued development work.
By adding an extra lip seal to the
seawater side of the 3AS, even greater
reliability has been made possible, a fact
that has been proven in endurance tests.
This is the basis of the 4AS-B system,
whereby the seal arrangement has two lip
seals facing and sealing off the seawater
side, and two others facing the sterntube
oil side to provide active double security

Air control unit

Air source
(Control Air)

L.O. tank unit

Aft seal
Float
switch
Stern tube
Needle valve Stern tube
L.O. pump unit
Cooler

Flow meter

Filter
Pump
Slight amount of air
is leaked from here.

Drain
collection unit

Air
Oil

Fig. 3 Typical piping diagram of Airguard 4AS-B aft seal.

against oil spillage. All seal rings run on

a shaft liner to avoid grooving and wear
to the propeller shaft. The seal is supplied
as a cartridge, which includes the shaft
liner, and is ready for installation without
need of any further assembly work.
Other than the additional seal ring on
the aft side, the 4AS-B system is essentially
very similar to the original 3AS. However,
the fact that the system now has two seal
rings to the seawater side means that
there is greater reliability in resisting
foreign particles, such as sand and shell
fragments. Seal performance life is also
extended. Normally, the #3 seal ring is
stored as a spare seal for the #2 seal ring
due to continuous oil flow under the
lip, which is the same as in the 3AS.
The structure of the aft seal on the
4AS-B, and the pressure balance in the seal
and sterntube are shown in Figure 1 and
Figure 2 respectively. Figure 3 illustrates

the typical piping diagram for the 4AS-B.

With the 3AS-B, the sealing system
is more simplified. Instead of the closed
system, pressurised oil tank, an open
system with a gravity tank is employed
as in conventional seal systems. The
structure of the aft seal unit for the 3AS-B
is exactly the same as with the original
3AS. The pressure balance of the 3AS-B
and a typical piping diagram are shown
in Figure 4 and Figure 5 respectively.
The advantages of the 3AS-B sealing
system over that of the 3AS system are
as follows
n Open circulation system
for the sterntube oil.
n The pressurised oil tank is not required.
n Checking and adjusting of the
sealing systems pressure balance
is no longer necessary. p

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[ marine / in detail]

Differential pressure of #2 seal ring changes

due to the change in draft.

Air control unit

Stern tube
L.O. gravity tank

Air source
(Control Air)

[ marine / in detail]

Float
switch

about 0,015MPa
Aft seal

L.W.L.

Stern tube
Needle valve Stern tube
L.O. pump unit

B.W.L.

Cooler

Filter
Pump

Flow meter

Drain
collection unit

#15/R

Air
Oil

#25/R #35/R #45/R #55/R

Fig. 4 Pressure balance of Airguard 3AS-B.

With this simplified system, although

the air pressure changes according to
the seawater pressure as with the 3AS,
pressure control of the sterntube oil has
been eliminated and the oil circulation is
now a constant pressure system. Therefore,
the differential pressure of the #2 seal
ring changes with the change in draft.
The performance of the 3AS-B seal in
dealing with the changes in differential
pressure has been verified in rotation tests.
In the case of the 3AS-B system,
the limitation for draft changing is
below 5m, as indicated in Table 1,
while the circumferential speed at
the seal sliding area is required to be
below 6m/sec, as shown in Table 2.
There are, therefore, three types of
Airguard sealing system currently available;
the 3AS, 4AS-B and 3AS-B. Depending
upon the required specification, the
particular Airguard type needed can be
selected by using Table 3, although it
should be noted that the 3AS and 4AS-B
are suitable for all types of vessel.

Stern tube
L.O. sump tank

Fig. 5 Typical piping diagram of Airguard 3AS-B aft seal.

Table 1. Suitable condition 1: Range of draft changing on ship.

Range of ship draft

3AS, 4AS-B

3AS-B

Change below 5m A A
Change more than 5m A N.A.
Table 2. Suitable condition 2: Liner rotation speed.
Max. Liner rotation speed

3AS, 4AS-B

3AS-B

Below 6m/s A A
More than 6m/s A N.A.
A: Available N.A: Not available
Table 3. Referable guidance for selection of Airguard system.
Type of ship

3AS, 4AS-B

3AS-B

LNG / LPG CARRIER A A

VLCC / ULCC A N.A. *1
TANKER <=50,000 DWT A A
CONTAINER CARRIER A N.A. *
CAR CARRIER A A
REEFER A A
BULK CARRIER >50,000 DWT A N.A. *1
BULK CARRIER <=50,000 DWT A A
PRODUCT CARRIER A A
RO-RO A A
CHIP CARRIER A A
A: Available N.A: Not available
A*: Available with draft changing below 5m
*1 : Draft changing more than 5m

40 indetail