| INTRODUCTION | ACTUAL SET UP | COMPARISON | PROJECT SET UP |
| INSTRUCTION | CIRCUIT DETAILS | HARDWARE | CONCLUSION |
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INTRODUCTION |
Operational conditions beyond normal are unavoidable, and many ship owners over-lubricate their engines under the false assumption that they will thus always be on the safe side. However, over-lubrication is not only expensive – but it may even be counterproductive in promoting scuffing through excessive carbon deposits and/or "bore-polished" running surfaces and adding to the amount of visible smoke produced.
MAN B&W's electronic Alpha Lubricator system - ensures considerable cylinder oil savings, controllable wear rates, scuffing control and longer intervals between engine overhauls by online cylinder process monitoring - via feedback signals of lubricant usage and fuel sulphur content.
A wear study has proved that the optimal settings of cylinder lubricators should be proportional to the engine load and the fuel sulphur content, a standard option of the alpha ACC. Corrosive wear control can be based on either feed rate control or control of the cylinder lube oil base number (BN).
A new lubrication algorithm, created based on scrape-down oil analysis data, cylinder oil dosage, engine load, sulphur content in fuel and cylinder wear rate is referred to as Alpha Adaptive Cylinder-oil Control (Alpha ACC).
Automatic optimization of lube oil dosage and cylinder lubrication efficiency has become a reality by on-line monitoring of the scrape-down oil composition and process monitoring from each cylinder, with the system feeding the results into a computer, with the above algorithm, and sending signals to each Alpha Lubricator.
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WHY ALPHA LUBRICATION IS NEEDED ??? |
Alpha adaptive cylinder- oil lubrication control was designed to inject an amount of cylinder lubricating oil, exactly required for lubricating purpose. If the amount of lube oil injected is less, the friction between the cylinder and the piston rings increases the wear rate of the cylinder. If the lube oil injected is more than the requisite amount, the cylinder wear rate again increases by making the cylinder loose its oil retention properties.
AMOUNT VS WEAR
To
overcome all these drawbacks from either increasing or decreasing the amount of
lube oil injected the Alpha ACC incorporates an electronic control unit to
overcome the mechanical lags from the cams and camshafts used for the
lubricating pumps. The quantity of oil to be injected is sensed from the engine
parameters such as its loading and the sulphur quantity of the fuel, the
quantity being varied by continuously monitoring the parameters
OVER LUBRICATED PISTON
