Importance

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Abstract

A marine propeller unit having a propeller (1) mounted on a horizontal propeller shaft (2) which is journalled in a gear housing (3), which is fixedly connected to a hollow strut (4) whose upper end is mounted in the bottom of a water-going vessel for rotation about a substantially vertical axis. The propeller is driven by a drive machinery within the vessel. Two conical gears (7/9, 8/10) on the propeller shaft are coupled to two vertical gear-drive shafts (11,12) journalled within the strut. The two gear-drive shafts are coupled by their respective cylindrical gears (19, 20) to an inner vertical drive shaft (16) and an outer tubular drive shaft (17) respectively, the tubular drive shaft being arranged outside the inner drive shaft (16) and coaxial therewith. These coaxial drive shafts are connected together and to the output shaft (21) of the drive machinery by resilient couplings (22, 23) in a manner such as to permit said shafts to be driven together. Because the power to the propeller shaft is distributed between duplicate gears and shafts, the dimensions of the gear housing and strut can be such as to ensure that the propeller efficiency is not excessively reduced, even when high propeller power is required. By torsion in the coaxial shafts and through the resilient couplings, the power to the gears is so distributed as to prevent them from being overloaded.

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First Claim