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ME311
No. 6 Cylinder Crank Pin Bearing Damage
Technical committee

Ship type Chip vessel

Date of build August 1996 Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.
Navigation route Tramper
Trouble machinery
Category Main engine
Name No. 6 Cylinder crank pin bearing
Type 6UEC50LSII
Date of trouble January 21, 1997 during anchorage

1. Outline of breakdown

During this vessel’s maiden voyage, the crankcase was inspected during anchorage at a foreign port
and a report was made concerning a small amount of white metal discovered at the bottom of the
crank case. After returning to port in Japan in November 1996, a maker's engineer boarded ship to
carry out inspection of each part, but the location of this white metal peeling could not be ascertained.
However, as the amount of white metal fragments was small, the maker judged that it would not hin-
der operation so servicing was continued.
During anchorage at a foreign port in December, there was a report regarding a small amount of white
metal discovered again.
When the ship returned to Japan in January, the maker's engineer boarded the vessel to re-carry out
inspections. When the crankcase door was opened, white metal was found at the No. 6 cylinder crank
pin bearing. An overhaul inspection of the above locations was immediately carried out and the dam-
age indicated in Fig. 2 was found to the bearing metal and crank pin. From the above facts, the white
metal this time was judged to be occurring from the No. 6 cylinder. However, for the sake of safety,
overhaul of the other cylinder crank pin bearings was carried out but abnormalities were not discov-
ered.

2. Probable causes

a. Judging from the presence of indentations on the damaged bearing surface and analysis of the dam-
aged metal and LO, it is surmised that the intermixing of foreign materials damaged the sliding sur-
face and caused peeling and baking.
b. When center measurement of the connecting rod and piston rod was carried out, it was discovered
that the No. 6 cylinder cross head had slipped about 1mm toward the after side. Due to faulty center-
ing of the connecting rod and piston rod, it is surmised that offset load was applied to the crank pin
bearing. Abnormalities were not discovered for other cylinders.

3. Repair

The damaged pin was grinded and bearing metal which is 0.6mm thicker than the standard was incor-
porated. As for the connecting rod and piston rod, they were unloaded and alignment measurement
was carried out at the factory. However, as alignment was normal, centering adjustment at time of as-
sembly was accomplished by shifting the cross head 0.8mm toward the bow side.

1
Fig. 1 Damaged area

2
Fig. 2 Damage condition