Wärtsilä Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd of Japan have made a joint development agreement to design and develop a new low-speed marine diesel engine.
The two companies see a potential in pooling their resources and experience to produce a new engine of 500–600 mm cylinder bore. Such engines are suitable for a wide variety of ship types, including bulk carriers in the Handymax and Panamax sizes, large product tankers, container feeder vessels, and medium-sized reefer ships. The new engine shall meet the market needs for high efficiency, compactness and environmental requirements.
Today, Wärtsilä has its own range of low-speed marine diesel engines, with the Sulzer low-speed engines covering the power range of 5,000 to 80,000 kW. Mitsubishi also has its own range of UE low-speed marine diesel engines covering the power range of 1,120 to 46,800 kW, and also has long co-operated in the manufacture of Sulzer engines going back to an agreement signed in 1925. Over the years, Mitsubishi has notably been extensively involved in the building and testing of the first examples of new designed Sulzer low-speed engines. The new agreement takes this co-operation a step further to joint design and development.
The project is led by a joint working group of engineers from both companies with supervision by a steering committee including senior management of the two companies.
It is envisaged that the new engine would be built in Japan by Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi’s licensees and Wärtsilä’s licensees. In Korea and China, the engine will be built by Wärtsilä’s and Mitsubishi’s licensees.
Wärtsilä Corporation is the leading global ship power supplier and a major provider of solutions for decentralised power generation and of supporting services with its head office in Helsinki, Finland. Wärtsilä Corporation supplies ship machinery, propulsion and manoeuvring solutions, and related services for all types of vessels. For the power generation market Wärtsilä delivers power plant solutions from 1 to 300 MW. Wärtsilä has a global sales and service network in about 60 countries. Wärtsilä’s net sales totalled EUR 2.4 billion in 2001 and it has 12,000 employees.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd is the world leading shipbuilder and also the major supplier of a wide-range marine machinery such as diesel engines, turbines, boilers, propellers, deck machinery etc., covering high-, medium-, and low-speed diesel engines, with the related services, for various type of vessels. For the power generation market, Mitsubishi delivers power plant solutions from 1 to 1200 MW. In addition Mitsubishi has high-level independent research and development centres with more than 2,000 qualified researchers who assist the development and design of the wide range of various products. Mitsubishi’s net sales totalled Japanese Yen 2,390 billion (approx. EUR 22.0 billion) in fiscal year of 2001 and it has 36,700 employees. For the low-speed engines, Mitsubishi has been a licensee of the Sulzer type since 1925, and has been the designer of UE engines for some 50 years as well, enjoying the customers’ reputation on its products.
For further information, please contact:
Mikael Mäkinen, Group Vice President, Marine Division, Wärtsilä Corporation
Tel. +358 10 709 56 20
Eeva Kainulainen, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Wärtsilä Corporation
Tel. +358 10 709 52 35
Mr Hideharu Sasaki, Manager, Marketing & New Business Section, Industrial Energy Power Systems Department, Power Systems Head Quarters, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, (Tokyo)
Tel. +81-3-3212-9046
Mr Tomoo Kuzu, Manager, Sales Section, Diesel Engine Department
Kobe Shipyard & Machinery Works, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd,
Tel. +81-78-672-3791
