Marine Propulsion Applications

Kingsbury bearings have been keeping the United States Navy ships afloat for a full century. The reliability of our bearing systems for commercial or military marine applications, is unrivaled.

Kingsbury has a wide array of bearing configurations for marine propulsion systems. The shaft rotation speed for marine applications is much lower than that of turbomachinery equipment. Kingsbury's flooded style thrust bearings are the standard choice for these applications along with a sleeve type (fixed geometry) journal bearing.

The Fleet

Kingsbury is extremely proud of its relationship with the United States Navy. Kingsbury has provided bearings to all of the major Navy surface and submarine vessel-classes.

Iowa Class Battleship

Kingsbury provides bearings for many shipboard applications, including main thrust and journal bearings (propeller shafts), main-reduction gear bearings, gear positioning bearings, line shaft bearings, and hundreds of bearings for the support and auxiliary equipment onboard ship, including pumps, compressors, blowers, turbines, and motors.

Medium Endurance Coast Guard Cutter

Kingsbury also provides bearings for Coast Guard and Commercial marine vessels.

USS Vincennes

Kingsbury provided the 43.25" thrust bearings to Westinghouse Sunnyvale (Northrop-Grumman) for the main reduction gears for the CG-Class Cruisers.

CVN-76

Kingsbury provides main reduction gear, line-shaft, and many other bearings for the Navy's existing and future fleet of aircraft carriers.

Damaged Shipboard Bearing

This photo shows a bearing which, while still operating up until the point of a scheduled maintenance, nonetheless exhibits damage and wear, probably from debris in the oil or from insufficient lubrication. Kingsbury can restore this bearing to as-new condition, often in one week or less, by repairing or replacing the thrust shoes ad repairing the rest of the bearing.

Main Propulsion Shaft Thrust/Journal Bearing Assembly

Kingsbury also provides the housing, seals, and base-plate for some Navy and commercial marine (cruise liners, dredges) applications.

Aircraft Carrier Refueling

Kingsbury also provides bearings to many of the support ships of the U.S. Navy such as auxiliary oilers and transport/landing vessels.

USS Georgia

Kingsbury has a long history of providing bearings for the submarine fleet, including our innovative vibration-reducer technology.

USS Georgia

Kingsbury bearings supporting the propulsion ad shipboard systems of the U.S. Navy Fleet.