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