Complete Solution For Silver Cloud
The combined forces of Vulkan Couplings and Vulkan DMR have ensured that sailing on the mega-yacht ‘Silver Cloud’ from Abeking & Rasmussen is an almost noise free and vibration free experience. The shipbuilders from Lemwerder have now also incorporated the tried and tested SWATH concept from pilot boats, which ensures good ship stability in heavy seas, into the build of a mega-yacht. SWATH stands for ‘Small Waterplain Area Twin Hull’ and has been transposed for the first time into the ‘Silver Cloud’. The 41 m long yacht has a steel hull as well as an aluminum superstructure. The steel hull consists primarily of two floating bodies with a diameter of ca. 2m, which are connected to each other through the first between-deck. A complete drive unit is housed in each floating body. For each drive train, an 820 kW Caterpillar C32 motor is used, which acts upon a ZF-3310 ZF gearbox via a Vulkardan-E E5411 coupling. The drive motor is mounted opposite the gearbox on a joint frame using Vulkan-DMR T60 mountings. For optimum noise and vibration dampening the joint base frame is in turn mounted on Vulkan-DMR T35 mountings. The gearbox output flange is connected to the propeller via the thrust bearing using a combination of Vulkan Propflex couplings with a Vulkan composite shaft for weight reduction. Thanks to the Propflex couplings, the noise paths from the drive unit to the ship’s structure are successfully blocked.
In each floating body a Caterpillar C9 generator with the Vulastik-L 2213, which is mounted on Vulkan-DMR TMG-DP500 mountings for structure-borne noise dampening, provides on-board power. The maximum ship speed is 14 knots and the ‘silver cloud’ has now been in operation for over a year to the complete satisfaction of the owner.