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ME267
Crack in Main Engine Cam Shaft Driving Chain Roller Link Plate
Technical committee

Ship type Container ship

Date of build August 1990
Navigation route Liner (Japan ~ Europe)
Trouble machinery
Category Main engine
Name Main engine cam shaft drive chain
Type RSO366RL
Date of trouble January 4, 1995 during anchorage

1. Outline of breakdown
a) During regular inspections while checking the main engine crank case and chain case interior, of
the 3 columns of drive chains, a crack was discovered on the fore side roller link plate as indicated
by Fig. 1. The total main engine working hour was 30,216 hours.
b) The B&W engineer together with the repair company replaced the damaged link. As Fig. 2 shows,
link replacement was carried out toward a total of 9 links including the damaged link, the links
before and after the concerned link, as well as links on other chains located at roughly the same
location as the concerned link.
c) Light hammering activity was sufficient to accomplish link detachment. After detachment, light
hammering destroyed the broken links.
d) As the entire surface of the roller was becoming rough, it is surmised that it incurred extreme load
or was insufficiently lubricated.
e) On arrival at mainland, inspection was carried out by the chain maker and shipyard, no problems
were found from external observation.
f) As a crack had formed over the entire width of the intermediate roller guide, it was replaced with a
spare.

2. Probable causes
a) A materials inspection of the broken plate was carried out but no data which would confirm
materials failure could be obtained.
b) During repair work at a foreign port, considering that during reassembly the chain take up unit
clamping nut was tightened one revolution tighter, and that a crack had formed on the roller guide, it
is surmised that swinging of the chain occurred due to improper take up and that an excessive stress
incurred upon the roller/plate region.

3. Repair
Although shipyard and chain maker inspections revealed no abnormalities, since the crack originated from
the inside of the roller guide insertion part and since this area could not be accessed without disassembly
of the chain, and as scarring damage was found on the surface of the chain roller, replacement of all
chains and damaged chain guides was carried out during docking construction activities following
discovery of the damage.

1
The Marine Engineer Jul.1995
 RETURN

Fig. 1 Link plate crack

Fig. 2

2
The Marine Engineer Jul.1995