HSD produces first Chinese built Sulzer common-rail engines

Eight 1,574 TEU container ships ordered by the German owner Peter Döhle from the Jiangsu Yangzijiang shipyard in China are to be powered by Sulzer RT-flex common-rail engines. Each ship will be equipped with a single 7-cylinder Sulzer RT-flex60C low-speed engine with a maximum continuous power output of 16,520 kW at 114 rpm. The engines will be built by Hudong Heavy Machinery in Shanghai under licence from Wärtsilä and will be the first of their kind from Hudong. This engine manufacturer joins five other licensed engine builders in Japan, Korea and China, as well as Wärtsilä’s own factory in Trieste, Italy, in building these advanced marine prime movers.

The ships, due for delivery in 2005 and 2006, will be employed on the North Atlantic trades. The key reason for choosing the Sulzer RT-flex engines is their capability for running at lower, steady speeds than traditional camshaft-controlled engines. This will allow better control of the ship while manoeuvring and during the long port approaches and river passages experienced on the trades for which the ships are intended.

Very low speed running is just one of the benefits of these engines which were the first to have electronically controlled common-rail systems for fuel injection and valve actuation. This gives great flexibility in the way the engines operate, to deliver benefits such as smokeless operation at all operating speeds, lower fuel consumption and reduced maintenance costs.