28 Jan 02. Speaking at a lunch for the naval and marine press on28 January, Dr Saul Lanyado. Head of the Marine side of Rolls-Royce, saidthat the company’ strategy of concentrating on integrated ship-systems haspaid handsome dividends. The company can no longer be described as a gasturbine manufacturers but is a supplier of the widest range of products andin particular integrated systems.
The company now includes many famous product-names:
UT Design and NVC-Design, providing ship-designs
Rolls-Royce and Eurodyn, designing and making as turbines
Bergen, providing diesel engines
Rauma Brattvaag, providing deck machinery
UMAS, designing and installing automation systems
Brown Brothers and Intering, providing stabilisers
Tenfjord and Frydenbô, supplying steering gear (<412kNM) and Brown Brothers
(naval)
Rudders, both high-lift and Hinze flap type
KaMeWa, supplying waterjets
Ulstein Aquamaster, supplying azimuth thrusters
KaMeWa Ulstein, supplying tunnel thrusters
Mermaid, supplying podded propulsors
KaMeWa Ulstein and Bird-Johnson, supplying controllable-pitch propellers
KaMeWa, supplying fixed-pitch propellers
As an example of the company’s range of capabilities, BAE Systems Type 45Prime Contract Office has selected Rolls-Royce Power Systems’ MarineDivision to supply the steering gear, fin stabilisers and the propellershaftlines for the Royal Navy’s new Daring class Type 45 destroyers.
The choice of a bolted propeller with blades which can be replacedunderwater without dry-docking is a significant improvement. It reducesmaintenance costs, emphasising the through-life cost of these ships embodiedin every contract. The contract extends the close working relationshipbetween Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems established for the Type 45 programme.Rolls-Royce is already contracted to supply the WR 21 intercooled gasturbines for the whole class.
According to Brian Phillipson, Director of the Type 45 project, “This is thelatest in a series of equipment contracts we have signed on the Type 45programme in the last few weeks. Following an intense period of tenderingand supplier-selection in recent months, the order placement rate hasaccelerated and we have made more than 20 contract-awards in the last fewweeks, with the remainder following this spring. We are working closely withour supplier community to to develop th best and most affordable solutionfor the Royal Navy”. In addition to Rolls-Royce, the Prime Contract Officeteam at Filton and in Glasgow includes BAE Systems specialists, Royal Navypersonnel, people from the Defence Procurement Agency, the Defence LogisticsAgency and specialists from Vosper Thornycroft and other suppliers.
Recent contract awards include:
Vosper Thornycroft Controls Ltd, for much of the electrical distribution
system
York International for the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC)
and chilled-water plants
Ultra Electronics for the sonar
Facet Industrial (UK) Ltd for the Avcat monitor and Avcat filter water
separator
Hamworthy KSF for the sewage treatment plants
Rycroft Ltd for the domestic freshwater modules
FCx Truflo Marine for the actuated and marine valves.
Rolls-Royce has rationalised its Ulstein Aquamaster range of azimuththrusters. Azipull pod-mounted thrusters are reported to be underconsideration for the Royal Navy’s new “Bay” class landing ships. It has apulling propeller and offers efficient propulsion and manoeuvring, and itscontra-rotating propellers give low noise and vibration.
The WR21 business has only just begun with rich picking expected in the USand Europe. The company is rumoured to be moving its Naval Turbine SupportUnit to the USA where the bulk of the business would be. Goldman Sachs inparticular has been downgrading Roll’s prospects and it may be that there issome opportunistic buying at lower levels prior to any possible bid from theUS. GE in particular has lost out on two large