Wärtsilä Corporation won a contract in April to supply two of the new Wärtsilä 46F engines to power an Ice class 1A, 1700 TEU open-top container feeder vessel ordered by the Dutch shipowner Wagenborg Shipping, a member of the Royal Wagenborg group.
To be built by the Kinderdijk shipyard of IHC Holland Dredgers BV in the Netherlands, the vessel will have dimensions of 167 m in length between perpendiculars and 23.7 m in breadth, and have a draught of 7.7 m. Her hatchless design will ensure fast turnround times in port, while a speed of about 21 knots will give short transit times. The vessel is scheduled for delivery in mid 2006 and will be mainly employed in northern European waters.
Wärtsilä is to supply the ship with both the two main engines and a controllable-pitch (CP) propeller. The main engines are six-cylinder Wärtsilä 46F engines each with a maximum continuous power of 7500 kW at 600 rpm. They will drive a single, 5.35m-diameter Lips CP propeller through a combining reduction gearbox. The Lips propeller will be equipped with the latest, compact E-type hub resulting in higher efficiency.
This solution with twin engines driving a single CP propeller provides flexibility in operation on either one or both main engines to provide excellent fuel economy over a wide range of ship speeds.
Wagenborg is one of the largest shipowning groups in Europe of vessels between 1000 and 20,000 tonnes deadweight. Most of the vessels in its fleet are equipped with Wärtsilä engines and Lips propellers.
New features with the Wärtsilä 46F engine
The new Wärtsilä 46F engine was launched at the SMM marine exhibition in Hamburg in autumn 2004. It offers reliable, compact and economic power based on a further refinement of proven design concepts, complemented by new value-adding features like best in class fuel- and lube oil consumption.
Initially available in six-, seven-, eight- and nine-cylinder in-line configurations, the Wärtsilä 46F covers a power range of 7500 to 11,250 kW at 600 rpm.
The output of 1250 kW/cylinder enables the engines to have fewer cylinders than alternative engines for a given output. This makes optimum use of space in ships, and reduces the maintenance required.
The Wärtsilä 46F has common rail fuel injection as a standard, which offers almost unlimited possibilities to adjust the fuel injection process to prevailing engine operating conditions, fuel characteristics and local emission requirements. The Wärtsilä 46F is also available with more conventional fuel injection equipment. In this case the injection equipment is based on injection pumps of the double plunger type that have been used with good experience on other Wärtsilä engines.
New monitoring technology has been introduced for the continuous measurement of bottom-end bearing temperatures. These are combined with the temperatures of main bearings and exhaust gases to provide real-time monitoring of engine performance in critical areas. These temperatures and other parameters can also be fed into Wärtsilä’s Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) service which is available to Wärtsilä engine users.
The Wärtsilä 46F follows the design philosophy in all new generation Wärtsilä engines of having modular built-on systems, including the lubricating oil cooler, filter and pump, as well as cooling water pumps and thermostatic valves.
Media contact:
Marit Holmlund-Sund
Public Relations Manager, Ship Power
Wärtsilä Corporation
Direct tel: +358 10 709 1439
Direct fax: +358 10 709 1425
e-mail: marit.holmlund-sund@wartsila.com
Internet: www.wartsila.com
