Composite marine propeller and large CT inspection system
NAKASHIMA PROPELLER Co., Ltd. is marine propeller manufacturer in Japan, originally established in 1926.
You can review the company homepage as shown below.
https://www.nakashima.co.jp/eng/index.html
Composite marine propeller and cap
They also sale Composite marine propellers and released them as the first enterprise.
Composite marine propeller show unique features like deformation during rotation in the water.
This feature leads to low cavitation and vibration, which affect the efficiency.
The composite advantage of high specific modulus and strength enables NAKASHIMA to design big diameter propellers, which show high performances.
Summary of composite propellers are available as below.
https://www.nakashima.co.jp/eng/product/cfrp.html
ECO-Caps are also commercially available.
They reduce propeller hub vortex which leads to energy loss.
ECO-Caps include very thin composite wings and produces a propulsive force by their optimized design.
They can achieve 3% energy saving.
You can view summary of ECO-Caps too.
https://www.nakashima.co.jp/eng/product/eco_cap.html
X ray CT scanning system for large composite products inspection
NAKASHIMA PROPELLER has non-destructive inspection systems of X ray CT.
They can inspect 3.4 meters diameter and 3.4 meters height as maximum with 10mA current / 450KV.
You can review the summary of systems as video.
Marine industry would be one of the interesting categories for composites because it has a potential for the future.
Composites show unique features as anisotropic material properties, and high resistance for corrosion.
Inspection system should be also the key technology.
Very large composite products should be inspected step by step during manufacturing because it should be difficult for rework and repair especially for inside defects like interlaminar defects.
