Customized electric motors and generators are key components in modern ship propulsion solutions. About 20 years ago, OSWALD began manufacturing PM motors and equipped maritime applications. Initially for dynamic winch systems, gradually for main drives in ferries and inland waterway vessels, but also for seagoing vessels such as fishing boats and coasters, and now for highly efficient energy generation as part of the gensets on board.
OSWALD configures and manufactures custom-made electric motors and generators for typical new builds and modernization projects. In the case of ship series, all options are usually examined, including new or adapted developments – the result is usually an individual but optimized solution to the customer’s requirements. The modular system creates near-series but nevertheless individual solutions that are manufactured and presented to the classification societies for plan review on a project-specific basis. Through intensive cooperation between the project management and the classification societies, type tests and routine tests are carried out in-house and documented accordingly. In many cases, acceptance takes place together with the class surveyor and the partners involved, the system integrators, shipyards or owners. The testing expenses are defined on a project-specific basis and carried out on site in our own test field according to the test plan.
OSWALD has now supplied electrical machines for around 100 projects for inland shipping and seagoing vessels, mostly as main drives and thruster motors, but also as pod motors and for PTI/PTO applications.
The power requirements are typically between 100kW and 3MW per electrical machine. Depending on the overall concept, high-pole direct drives or high-speed PM synchronous machines are used. In the inland shipping sector, direct drives with integrated thrust bearings are increasingly being used, making the drive train more compact compared to conventional solutions.
