Swirl Valve Cuts Lube Consumption

Hans Jensen Lubricators has clients who have seen up to 60 per cent savings in cylinder lube oil by upgrading to their products for injecting and regulating cylinder lube oil. The outcome can be beneficial for achieving improvements called for in a Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan as IMO guidelines specifically consider “valve improvements” and “adjustment of cylinder oil consumption”.

The Swirl Injection Principle (SIP) valve was introduced by Hans Jensen Lubricators in 2001 and is currently installed in over 770 vessels. SIP uses high pressure to vaporize the cylinder lube oil, and in combination with the swirl from the scavenge air, the oil is distributed on a large area of the upper liner surface just before the piston ascends. This principle has proven to give remarkably better lubrication efficiency than standard non-return valves, and therefore much less lubrication oil is needed to provide satisfactory lubrication. In addition, it is seen that the liner and piston ring condition is improved.

Hans Jensen Lubricators have a range of different products to inject and regulate the cylinder lube oil, both mechanically and electronically. The cylinder lube oil can be regulated according to RPM, MEP, BHP or a customer specific algorithm, and can also be combined with regulation according to the sulphur content of the fuel.

In today’s shipping climate, it can be very advantageous to make sure that your cylinder lubrication is load dependent, says the company. This is be one way to overcome challenges derived from slow steaming, operation at varying load and cold corrosion issues, since cylinder lubrication will be more well-adjusted regardless of operation parameters. 

The company’s products are easily retrofitted to any vessel as the job can be carried out while discharging cargo and there is no need for docking. The results are easily measured, as the daily consumption of a vessel is normally already monitored in the log file of a vessel.