[balboa]

Common Rail technology, used widely to power trucks hasn't made it to powering (smaller) marine gen sets.

Why??

Thorwald

[K1W1]

Hi,

The Marine Industry whilst being what all of us involved in it see as a large scale operation is actually only a very small drop in the ocean to the manufacturers of Automotive Engines.

Caterpillar for example whilst being used all over the world in boats today only derives a fraction of it's income from Marine Related business under the CAT Brand, this said MAK which is now a CAT brand generates a large percentage of it's income from Marine related activities, but still a small art of CATS total income.

It is not just a simple task of taking any engine you want and bolting an alternator on the back as the engine characteristics and hardware have to be setup and suited for constant speed operation. You will also see that small common rail diesels used in cars and light trucks often generate their power at speeds far in excess of what one can run a generator at normally so to run at a sensible speed one will be dropping the power output considerably when using a high speed highly rated lightweight engine.

When you say smaller how small do you mean?

[balboa]

Thanks for the response.

OK. I guess it makes sense - kind of the 80-20 principle - to not spend too much time and money in renovation of a segment that's a very small part of your sales.

When I say small, I mean under 500hp. It seems marine aux. engines with common rail or main engines don't start until 1000hp and up.

Although I did run into something new at the lower end of the power range - www.mtudda.com.au/index.php?id=78#d (not a generator application)

Thorwald

[Northern Lights]

The last high preesure common rail system I was asked to look at had stability issues. The mechanic that built and sold the machine to a long range sport boat failed to install a true generator software. Once done it all cleaned up. Like anything new in an industry there will be systems conflict. It takes a little time. Once the dust settles it will be cutting edge. If you are one of the lucky ones that buy it to soon you get to assist at your expense the manufacturer R&D the product.

[brian eiland]

You might keep an eye on these fellows. They are developing a series of generators based on common-rail diesel engines, albeit DC generators

http://www.ossapowerlite.com/