www.tjprc.org SCOPUS Indexed Journal editor@tjprc.org AN INNOVATIVE ELECTRIC SHIP STEERING SYSTEMS: ANALYSIS AND IMPLEMENTATION Dr. MARCO SILVESTRI 1 , Dr. TIZIANO CUCCHI 2 & Dr. MATTEO CONFALONIERI 3 1 Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, Parma, Italy 2 Fincantieri S.P.A., Massa Carrara, Italy 1,3 Department of Innovative Technologies, SUPSI, Manno, Switzerland ABSTRACT Ship's steering systems have changed over the ages, driven by the need for more powerful and reliable systems. Nowadays the normal practice for ship’s steering systems lies into hydraulic solutions because of their excellent characteristics in terms of performances and reliability. However, the modern advancements in the electric drives field, give insights to compare the two systems, with attention to the lower masses and costs enabled by electric drives adoption. This paper describes this comparison, downstream to the conceptual design purpose of an electric drive system suited for ships of about 500 tons of load displacement and 50 m of overall length. The results confirm the hypothesis, laying the foundations for the development of ship’s steering systems inspired by this studied solution. KEYWORDS: Ship Steering System, Steering Gear, Brushless Motor & Differential Gear Drive Received: May 10, 2019; Accepted: Jun 01, 2019; Published: Jun 29, 2019; Paper Id.: IJMPERDAUG201941 INTRODUCTION The rudders drive system issues have a very long history that basically starts since the first ships development. At the very beginning these systems were manual, then electric motors and hydraulic systems have been introduced; however, in the last decades the great majority of ship’s designers have shifted to the sole hydraulic solution, because of their better reliability and performances with approximately the same dimensions and masses. Despite this trend, it is worth making some considerations on the modern opportunities offered by the new electric motors and electronic controllers, primarily in terms of mass and cost reductions [1]. To develop these considerations into details, a case study has been considered and will be described in the next sections. The approach followed is part of a more general trend that, in recent years, has seen a growing interest in replacing traditional solutions with more innovative ones that arise from the integration of special 3D printed components integrated into mechatronic systems [2], [3].The implementation of the electric drive system for the rudders must ensure the performances and the reliability according to the regulations of the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), which will be considered as the reference also for the load calculations [4], [5]. The comparison starts from the case study description, then calculations for the load determination have been reported, together with some hypothesis on the rudders motion law. Then a complete solution for the electric drive is purposed, including the choices of the mechanical transmission, the gear box, the electric motor and an original differential gear drive. Original Article International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering Research and Development (IJMPERD) ISSN (P): 2249-6890; ISSN (E): 2249-8001 Vol. 9, Issue 4, Aug 2019, 415-424 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.