Page 46: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2014)

46 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • SEPTEMBER 2014 “

MARINE PROPULSIONMARINE PROPULSION

C aterpillar Motoren is a Ger- man-American success story,” were the opening words of

Oswald Schöffel, CEO of the

Caterpaillar Motoren GmbH, Kiel, Ger- many, in welcoming guests and select media to the Caterpillar Motoren Kiel fa- cilities earlier this summer for a product presentation of the latest developments in MaK Medium Speed Engines. “The company has grown continually during the recent years and has gained with its innovative products a very good position in the market segments of the shipping industry, stationary power generation as well as in the oil and gas industry. This also applies for and specifi cally for our sites in Kiel and Rostock, which has, be- side others, with construction and deliv- ery of low emission marine engines for the cruise industry earned great respect by shipping owners and passengers.”

Collaboratoin Nears

Two Decades

In 1997 Caterpillar Inc., headquartered in Peoria, Illinois, acquired the former

Krupp MaK Maschinenbau GmbH, Kiel (MaK) and changed the name into Cat- erpillar Motoren GmbH. Only two years later the company extended the Kiel site and acquired additional parts of the tra- ditional company Dieselmotorenwerk

Rostock (DMR). In the year 2000, after just 12 month of work and improvements of the test stand capacities, the manufac- turing of the biggest Caterpillar engine series, MaK M43, has been completely transferred from Kiel to Rostock.

Since then medium speed four-stroke engines in the power range of 6,000 to 16,800 kW are manufactured at the site in Rostock-Warnemünde. To guarantee a long term growth strategy for large diesel and gas engines, the plant has been ex- tended by four halls. Today, the Rostock

Engine Center ranks among the most modern manufacturing plants in Europe.

The 22,500 sq. m. plant is responsible for the assembly, testing, painting and delivery of the engine types VM32C,

M43C and VM43C as well as the gas en- gines GCM34, mainly manufactured for the oil market. “Marine engines out of Kiel and Ros- tock nowadays are on the high seas all over the world and they reliably perform their function,” said Schöffel. “What has started in 1851 with the very fi rst Ger- man sea-going steel steamer at the river

Warnow, will be continued by Caterpil- lar Motoren Rostock GmbH.”

New Developments

It was Dr. Frank Starke, Global Prod- uct Manager, Medium Speed Engines, who opened the product presentation with the words: ”For every challenge, there is a suitable solution.” Caterpillar

Marine, which includes the MaK marine engine range manufactured at Caterpil- lar Motoren facilities in Germany, China and Brazil, is responding with a num- ber of new developments, including the

M32E engine for diesel-electric drive, the M25E engine and three dual fuel op-

Caterpillar for Vessel Driving Power

Caterpillar’s complete system solutions strategy

By Peter Pospiech

Image above: Assembly hall of Caterpillar-MaK in Kiel.

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