Tips from our expert: Stern tube seals for fishing vessels

Own a fishing vessel? Then you know how important these ships are for business and why it is crucial to keep them going. After all, if operation comes to a standstill it means you miss out on income and this is something you want to avoid at all times. To keep your ship sailing, we advise using the Supreme® Standard seal. Are you operating in US waters? Then the Supreme Ventus® air-type seal is the solution for you!

Our advice: The Supreme Standard with advanced options

As the name suggests, this sealing solution is the basic design of the Supreme range. The Supreme Standard can be delivered as an aft and forward seal and can be expanded with several customised options.

For fishing vessels we recommend using this sealing solution with the addition of the following options:

Hard Metal Layer

To lengthen the lifetime of the liner, we advise adding a Hard Metal Layer (HML) to the seal. This HML (picture 1, position 7) is applied to the liner using HVOF spraying. Under strictly controlled production conditions, the HML is formed with a high adhesive strength and a porosity of less than 1%, and prevents crevice corrosion which can occur on ceramic layers.

Net cutter

Fishing vessels often sail in areas where fishing lines, nets or small ropes can be loose in the water and this could damage the seal. To avoid this, net cutters (picture 1, position 4) can be welded to the rope guard. Lagersmit offers stainless steel net cutters that sever fishing lines before they enter the aft seal area.

Wire winder

Another option to prevent damage from fishing lines is to install a wire winder (picture 1, position 3) to the propeller hub. The wire winder has an L-shaped cross section and to make sure no lines can slip in, the space between the rope guard and the wire winder is kept as small as possible.

Dirt barrier

Damage to the seal caused by large abrasive particles can be avoided by adding a dirt barrier (picture 1, position 5) to the seal. The dirt barrier works as an axial lip seal, preventing large abrasive particles and small fishing lines from entering the seal.

Zero emissions

The Supreme Standard can also be complemented with the Supreme Ventus air-type seal which offers zero emissions of oil, 100% Condition Monitoring and a stretched maintenance interval. More information about the Supreme Ventus.