Kawasaki Steering Gear
& CPP Parts Supplier
RV · RM · RE · FM · FE steering types · CH Series controllable pitch propellers
One nameplate, two mechanically separate product lines
Kawasaki Heavy Industries builds marine steering gear and controllable pitch propellers in two different businesses: the steering gear belongs to its hydraulic components business, whose steering gear service bulletins are issued by the Precision Machinery Business Division, while the CPP is sold through the Marine Machinery Sales Department of the Machinery Division. A request naming only "Kawasaki" therefore needs one clarification before it goes further: which system. A turbocharger is read from its own plate; KBB (Kompressorenbau Bannewitz) is a separate German maker, and KBB units go through the KBB turbocharger route.
Electro-hydraulic steering gear since 1916
Kawasaki brought Hele-Shaw electro-hydraulic steering gear technology to its Kobe works in 1916 and completed electro-hydraulic steering gears in 1924, with the Hele-Shaw radial piston pump serving as their hydraulic source for many years. Current Kawasaki steering gear is a Rapson-slide (ram) design: the ram thrust reaches the rudder through a ram pin, a roller bearing and a hardened steel plate, and the pump, mounted inside the oil tank, is Kawasaki's own LV series on large gears and the LVP017 on small ones.
The current steering gear lineup
The type letters on a Kawasaki plate describe the machine: R means one ram and two cylinders, F means two rams and four cylinders, and the second letter gives the control system — M for mechanical pump control, E for electrical pump control (the E series) and V for valve control (the V series, built as RV). FM/RM, FE/RE and RV types all appear in Kawasaki's own service bulletins. The Unified-Edition, on sale since 2024, is a new E-type gear for FE and RE ratings that mounts the control box and the follow-up transmitter on the steering gear itself instead of installing them separately.
Under licence from Escher Wyss since 1956
Kawasaki has built controllable pitch propellers since 1956, originally under licence from Escher Wyss & Co. of Switzerland. The current line is the CH Series, and the maker's own reference list still cites earlier record-holding builds — an eleven-metre unit once the largest CPP built, and a nine-metre five-blade unit — alongside CH Series deliveries to shuttle tankers, car carriers and Ro-Ro tonnage.
Where the CPP and the steering gear part ways
Kawasaki packages the CPP's pitch control hydraulics as an inboard, all-in-one unit — inside the hull, not in the propeller — with a gearbox-mounted oil distribution box offered as an option, and automatic load control (ALC) and overload protection (OLP) among its control devices. None of this hydraulic equipment interchanges with a steering gear's own pump and valve set.
Steering gear and CPP share a maker, not a parts bin
Both systems carry the Kawasaki name, but they come from different Kawasaki businesses with separate parts and service channels, and the machines underneath do different jobs and hold no interchangeable parts between them. Each is ordered against its own type designation and the ship's installation record.
Steering gear moves the rudder against a load that changes with speed and helm order, through rams, pump units and a control chain. On E-type gears the pump is controlled electrically through a torque motor and an LVDT; on M-type gears through a mechanical lever linkage; on V-type gears through solenoid direction control valves. That control system, read from the second type letter, decides which wear parts apply, so the full type designation from the plate and the approximate build year are worth stating up front.
The controllable pitch propeller answers a different question: how much thrust the same shaft speed delivers, by changing blade angle rather than engine speed. Kawasaki's pitch control hydraulics sit in an inboard unit, connected through a gearbox-mounted oil distribution box on installations that use one, and are supervised by automatic load control and overload protection rather than by a rudder-order control chain. A CPP enquiry naming the hydraulic unit or the oil distribution box is a different request from a steering gear enquiry, even when both plates read Kawasaki and both requests arrive from the same engine room.
No line here is matched from a table of dimensions: Vessel Core reviews each line against the type designation and the ship's own installation record, and quotes an OEM route or a verified alternative once that record is in hand.
What gets ordered against steering gear or a CPP
Listed by system, since a request naming one line rarely touches the other.
- Steering gear actuator and pump assembly components, RV, RM, RE, FM and FE types
- Torque motor and LVDT on E-type pump control units, which Kawasaki lists as standard replacement parts on gears in service for more than ten years
- Solenoid direction control valves, position sensors and hydraulic-lock detector boards on V-type gears
- LV series and LVP017 pump parts, including drive-shaft oil seals, or a complete LVP017 pump, which Kawasaki recommends replacing as an assembly at overhaul
- Ram V-packings, ram pins, roller bearings and hardened steel plates
- Valve block internals for the steering gear hydraulic circuit
- CPP hydraulic unit components, CH Series and earlier builds
- Gearbox-mounted oil distribution box parts, where fitted
- Automatic load control and overload protection system components
- Pitch control linkage and feedback elements
- Hoses, fittings and bonded seals on either system's hydraulic circuit
- Filter elements and blockage indicators
- Electric motors and control cabling associated with either system
- Overhaul seal and bearing sets quoted per type designation and generation
A line naming "the hydraulic unit" belongs to the CPP; a line naming "the actuator" or "the control box" on its own housing belongs to the steering gear. Sending a photograph of the plate settles which system a mixed request concerns. Related deck hydraulics sit on marine valves and pipe system components.
Which system, which type, which ship
A useful starting list for either a steering gear enquiry or a CPP enquiry, since both are ordered against a type designation and a ship's own installation record rather than a catalogue number.
- Which system the request concerns: steering gear or controllable pitch propeller
- Steering gear type as stamped, in full: R or F, then M, E or V, then the torque and pump-unit figures that follow the letters; plus the pump type from the pump's own plate (LV series or LVP017)
- Whether the control box and follow-up transmitter sit on the steering gear itself (Unified-Edition) or the control box is installed separately
- CPP designation (a CH Series code or an earlier P-type code) from the inboard hydraulic unit, the oil distribution box or the propeller drawing, since the hub itself is outside the hull
- Vessel name and IMO number, since maker records are held against the ship
- Drawing number and position number on it, where the documentation is aboard
- Whether the CPP request concerns the hydraulic unit, the oil distribution box or the control chain
- Electrical data from the sticker inside the relevant cabinet, photographed rather than transcribed
- Oil type in the hydraulic circuit and the date of the last change, where known
- Class society and the date of the next survey, since completed work of this kind is surveyed
- Photographs of the nameplate, of the cabinet sticker and of the component in place
Tools for this equipment: the lubricant code reader for the hydraulic oil, the oil cleanliness code reader for an oil analysis report and the hose assembly builder for the hoses. The hydraulic displacement calculator gives the flow of a hydraulic pump from the displacement on its plate and the drive speed. On the CPP side, the propeller slip calculator gives the apparent slip from the pitch, the shaft speed and the ship speed, and the true slip from a wake fraction.
A survey item and a consumable are not answered alike
Requests naming Kawasaki steering gear or CPP components arrive mixed, and the review differs by what the line actually touches.
Actuator overhauls, hydraulic unit work and anything that changes what the class society surveyed are the hard end. This work is tied to docking rather than to running hours, and the review checks the reference against the vessel's own installation record before a route is proposed. These lines go to an OEM-route review by default, and where the vessel's own service history is too thin to confirm a match, we name the exact drawing the part was checked against rather than guess.
Filter elements, hoses, bonded seals, fittings and comparable consumables are ordinary supply questions with measurable geometry and stated material, and a verified alternative route can be reviewed on them where a buyer's approval requirements allow, with dimensional and material documentation checked at RFQ stage. Control cabinets, feedback components and pump elements sit in the middle, where the route depends on whether the system is resurveyed afterwards. Vessel Core is an independent spare parts supplier and marks the proposed route against each line on the list, so a request mixing these categories gets answered as several routes, not one blanket answer.
Kawasaki steering gear and CPP parts — common questions
My nameplate says Kawasaki. Is it steering gear or a controllable pitch propeller?
Check where the plate is. A steering gear plate is on the steering gear itself in the steering gear room; for a CPP, look on the inboard hydraulic unit or the oil distribution box in the engine room, because the propeller hub is outside the hull. The two systems come from different Kawasaki businesses, so the answer also decides the parts channel. If a photograph of the plate is sent with the enquiry, we work from that rather than asking you to identify the system first.
What generation is my Kawasaki steering gear?
Kawasaki's own documents identify a gear by its type letters rather than by generation. FM/RM (mechanical pump control), FE/RE (electrical pump control) and RV (valve control) types all appear in Kawasaki service bulletins from 2003 onward, so the letters alone do not date a unit. A Unified-Edition gear, sold from 2024, carries its control box and follow-up transmitter on the steering gear itself; on earlier gears the control box is installed separately. Send the type designation as stamped and, where visible, the build year.
Does the CPP hydraulic unit use the same parts as the steering gear hydraulics?
No. Kawasaki's CPP pitch control hydraulics are a separate inboard unit, apart from the pump units and valves that drive a steering gear's rams. A gearbox-mounted oil distribution box, where fitted, belongs to the CPP circuit only. Naming which unit an oil sample or a seal reference comes from settles the drawing.
Can I order Kawasaki turbocharger parts here too?
Kawasaki-built turbochargers are not covered on this page. Note that KBB (Kompressorenbau Bannewitz) is a separate German manufacturer, not a Kawasaki designation — read the turbocharger's own plate rather than assuming a shared maker. Send turbocharger enquiries through the KBB turbocharger route; this page concerns steering gear and controllable pitch propellers only.
Which Kawasaki steering gear and CPP parts can go on an alternative route?
Filter elements, hoses, bonded seals, fittings and comparable consumables have measurable geometry and stated material, and a verified alternative route can be reviewed on them where your approval requirements allow, with dimensional and material documentation checked at RFQ stage. Actuator overhauls, hydraulic unit work and anything that changes what the class society surveyed go to an OEM-route review by default. Control cabinets, feedback components and pump elements sit in the middle, where the route depends on whether the system is resurveyed afterwards.
Is Vessel Core connected to Kawasaki?
No, and there is no agreement of any kind. Vessel Core holds no dealership, distribution, representation or partnership agreement with Kawasaki, and quoting a component against one of its designations implies no approval by the maker and no claim of interchangeability.
Submit your RFQ now.
Send your Kawasaki request — the type designation (RV, RM, RE, FM, FE or CH Series), the nameplate details, and a photograph of the actuator or pitch mechanism. Vessel Core reviews the supply route and prepares a structured supply quotation.
