Wärtsilä launches new medium-speed design

The Wärtsilä 46F is the latest in the highly successful marine engine series launched in 1987 with the Vasa 46. Though visually similar to the original Wärtsilä 46 with comparable bore and stroke, the Wärtsilä 46F is a new engine with the latest technology. It incorporates common rail injection and scaleable embedded control, for high performance and record-low exhaust emissions, regardless of fuel quality. It is ideally suited for applications that place a premium on optimum space layout, savings in operating and maintenance costs, superior environmental performance and fuel adaptability.

High power-to-weight ratio

The new engine initially covers the output range from 7,500 to 11,250kW at 600 rpm in 6- 7- 8- and 9-cylinder in-line configuration. The higher output has been achieved by increasing engine speed instead of mean effective pressure, allowing full exploitation of the latest developments in turbocharger technology for efficiency and environmental optimisation. In full-load operation, early closure of the inlet valves makes it possible to use a low effective compression ratio, resulting in a workcycle characterised by low combustion air temperature, keeping the rate of NOx formation low.

The high output also contributes directly to operational and maintenance savings. For example, many typical single main engine applications could use a Wärtsilä 46F main engine with one or two fewer cylinders compared to current ship designs (e.g. a 7-cylinder main engine compared to a 9-cylinder main engine), yielding maintenance savings in the region of 20%.

As with all newer Wärtsilä engines, the 46F has modular built-on systems and features such as lubricating oil module with oil cooler and filter, crankshaft driven lubricating oil pump and cooling water pumps, and thermostatic valves. Besides minimising installation cost, built-on modules are the key to the engine?s compact design; the new 46F has the same overall dimensions as the Vasa 46 but with much more power.

CBM

The Wärtsilä 46F is the first engine to have continuous temperature monitoring of the big end bearings as standard. This patented feature, in addition to main bearing temperature monitoring and exhaust gas temperature monitoring, now standard for many years, provides a complete set of reliable real-time data to monitor the engine performance in all its crucial areas ? a prerequisite for Condition Based Maintenance (

CBM

).

The monitoring system is configured for easy hook-up to Wärtsilä?s

CBM

system, a data analysis and condition evaluation service that Wärtsilä provides for its customers.

Use of common rail (CR) technology, standard on the Wärtsilä 46F, offers almost unlimited adjustment of the fuel injection process to match prevailing engine operating conditions, fuel characteristics and local emission requirements. The 46F is also available with more conventional fuel injection equipment ? in this case double plunger type injection pumps, as used with good experience on Wärtsilä 64 engines, are adopted.

The Wärtsilä common rail system gives the flexibility needed to maintain optimum combustion and minimum emissions with various fuel qualities. The system can be set up with multiple sets of parameters to achieve optimum performance using different fuels, such as high ash fuel, low sulphur fuel or regular commercial bunker.