Marine Propulsion

Cleaning ROVs

Cleaning ROVs have unique requirements for their thrusters, necessitating high continuous thrust combined with high reliability in waters with high fouling & particle content. These demands make flooded rim-drive thrusters the preferred choice to ensure adequate motor cooling & reduce the need for shaft seal maintenance.

Rim-drive thrusters require a large inner diameter to accommodate the impeller, along with low speed losses to achieve high efficiency & thrust levels. FiberPrinted™ motors offer a market-leading high ID/OD ratio & extremely low speed-dependent losses, making them the optimal motor technology for rim-driven thrusters. For more information, please see the Hydra-100 blog post.

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The majority of AUVs & UUVs require long-range capabilities & are typically battery-powered. This necessitates optimizing the entire vehicle for minimal drag, & the propulsion system must be tailored for maximum efficiency. Ducted propellers are a common method used to maximize propeller efficiency &, consequently, overall efficiency. An even more effective approach is to utilize rim-driven propellers, which seal the high-pressure zone from the low-pressure zone even more effectively than ducted propellers.

FiberPrinting™ motors enable the production of rim-drive thrusters with a low drag coefficient, thanks to their market-leading high ID/OD ratio, which allows for a slim rim profile.

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