Page 9: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2001)

Investment in Design vessel series entrusted to a Portuguese shipbuilder.

Trieste is currently operating at an out- put level in the region of 500-750 MW per annum, and is a showcase for the

Wartsila Flexible Manufacturing Sys- tem, the production model which has evolved out of the company's 'focused factory' concept. The Italian plant creat- ed something of the template for the new system, whereby nominated back- up factories support each product-spe- cific factory for engine assembly and component manufacture. Its role in meeting the surging demand for Wart- sila 46 medium-speed engines, for which the Turku plant in Finland is the lead producer, is illustrative of the arrangements.

The enduring popularity of the Sulzer

ZA40S four-stroke series is clearly in evidence at Trieste, where it contributes substantially to the delivery program through to 2004. The Italian works is also the nominated factory for the Wart- sila 26X, aimed at high-speed trans- portation and naval applications, and for the mighty 64-type four-stroke, the world's most powerful medium-speed diesel, delivering a staggering 2 MW per cylinder. Commencing with the 13,645-dwt German vessel Container- ships VI, commissioned in 1999, a total 11 engines of the Wartsila 64 type have now been supplied for marine propul- sion. At press time, the Finnish engine group was hoping that the design would be nominated for an Italian tanker new- build project, to set a major new phase of diesel production in train at Trieste.

While the largest modern-day diesel, which the plant is currently geared up to produce is the RTA84C in its eight- cylinder configuration, the Italian facto- ry has the distinction of having pro- duced the world's biggest diesel engine as measured by bore size. The record was set in 1972 with the delivery of a

Fiat two-stroke unit with a bore of 1,060-mm. By comparison, the largest, albeit considerably more powerful, engines now available are of 960 mm and 980 mm-bore, turned out in the Far

East under license from Wartsila and

MAN B&W, respectively.

Dolphin Finds

A Home

A growing appreciation of the benefits of podded electric propulsion is widen- ing the concept's market reach, although business for such systems has remained concentrated among just a handful of suppliers. The recent deal for the Dol- phin system, while denoting the com- mercial breakthrough for the alliance between STN Atlas Marine Electronics

March , 2001 of Germany and John Crane-Lips of the

UK, also expresses the market's recep- tivity to a further option and additional player.

Two Dolphin propulsors have been ordered for Radisson Seven Seas' 48,000-gt diesel-electric cruise liner under construction at Mariotti's premis- es in Genoa harbor.

STN Atlas Marine's prowess in electri- cal engineering melded with John

Crane-Lips' Dutch-honed skills in pro- pellers, thrusters and hydrodynamics has resulted in a pod line covering units powers between 3-MW and more than 19-MW. The prestigious, milestone cruise ship application calls for a pair of outboard, podded drives delivering 7,000-kW apiece at 170 rpm.

Radisson Seven Seas earlier demon- strated its belief in the design and oper-

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