Wärtsilä and Diesel United renew co-operation agreement for low-speed marine engines
Wärtsilä and Diesel United Ltd in Japan have signed a ten-year renewal of their co-operation agreement for the sale, manufacturing and servicing of Wärtsilä low-speed marine engines. Diesel United is a long-standing member of the Wärtsilä family of low-speed engine licensees. The renewal was signed on the 66th anniversary of the signing of the licence by Diesel United for Sulzer low-speed marine engines on 4 October 1948. This has been Diesel United’s sole licence for low-speed two-stroke diesel engines throughout the years since then, the company said in its press release.
The licence co-operation agreement is granting Diesel United the right to use Wärtsilä’s low-speed engine technology for manufacturing, sale and servicing of Wärtsilä low-speed engines in the Japanese market and some export countries, also defining and regulating intellectual property rights, and the delivery and feedback of technical information and support. Such licence agreements allow synergies to the participating companies by aggregating research, development and design with the licensor while distributing and localising manufacture to licensees in separate countries.
Wärtsilä and Diesel United look back on a successful, fruitful relationship. Besides building many engines, Diesel United has, over the years, also contributed to the development of Wärtsilä low-speed engines and also built the first examples of new engine types. Recently Diesel United has also accumulated specific knowledge and experience around the development of the Wärtsilä two-stroke dual-fuel engine technology.
This successful co-operation led more recently to an agreement for installing a 6-cylinder Wärtsilä X72DF test engine, featuring Wärtsilä’s state of the art low-pressure dual fuel technology, at Diesel United’s Aioi works in Japan. Wärtsilä will start testing in the first quarter 2015 with the main focus being on performance optimisation and component validation. Additionally, the test engine will serve as a technology demonstrator to the shipping industry.
From the first vessel equipped with a Harima-built Sulzer engine in 1950, the “Kyoei Maru” with a 6TD36 trunk-piston two-stroke engine, until today, more than 2900 engines have been built under our co-operation, totalling more than 27,900 MW (38 million bhp). Now the continuity of this co-operation has been secured for another ten years through the new co-operation agreement.
“Wärtsilä and Diesel United have a long common history in introducing new technologies to the Japanese and international shipbuilding industry. The extension of our licence co-operation agreement for a period of ten years will enable us to strengthen our presence in the important Japanese shipbuilding market and to make sure that our customers will also in the years to come be able to benefit from the availability of competitive, high quality fuel efficient and environmentally friendly main propulsion engines for large merchant vessels built by Diesel United” comments Martin Wernli, Vice President, 2-stroke, Wärtsilä Ship Power.