A tremendous effort by dedicated and committed individuals from all areas of the submarine community “has successfully completed the complex task of recovering the turbo generator (TG) bearings damaged during commissioning on the first-class submarine Astute.
Programme Director Stuart Godden praised the way his Submarine Solutions team, working with partners Rolls- Royce and specialist machining company NICOL AND ANDREW in consultation with the Ministry of Defence had delivered the recovery.
Months of development and physical work involved:
Developing a technique to recover the bearings in situ, to exacting tolerances, whilst ensuring the submarines noise signature was not compromised;
Implementing this technique in confined conditions on board the submarine, to repair the bearing to the required tolerance’s and to the satisfaction of all parties.
Reinstating the TG housing to allow support systems to be restored.
The damage occurred during the commissioning in August, when the Astute suffered a loss of electrical supplies to the lubricating oil pumps.
The TGs consequently ran down without the lubricating oil, causing damage to the bearing and some other TG components.
Four of the TG’s eight bearings were damaged, requiring a recovery by the surface machining technique. The others sustained superficial damage.
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