Ocean Going – Commercial Shipping – Pleasure Craft Edition No. 81

2006

Caterpillar Marine

www.cat-marine.com oder www.mak-global.com

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Caterpillar MarineN E W S

Contents

Impressum Published by: Caterpillar Marine Power Systems,

Neumühlen 9, 22763 Hamburg

Edited by: Hans-Jürgen Homeyer,

Sales Promotion/Public Relations,

Marketing Support, Kiel 0431 3995-2686Printed by: HB-Medien GmbH, Löhne

Reprints in whole or part permitted only with due acknow-ledgement. File copy requested.

3 Successful SMM 2006 and Caterpillar presentation

5 Lively discussions: 19th International Tug & Salvage Convention and Exhibition

6 Holland America Line: MaK engines for the new cruise ships of the „Signature“ class

9 MaK M 43 C – engines for “AIDAdiva”: First engine quartet delivered to Meyer Werft

11 MaK M 20 C: Enhanced M 20 series offering many advantages for the operator

13 Tested quality: Certification for Caterpillar Motoren Guangdong Co. Ltd

15 Caterpillar-engines: New engine plant for the “M/S Chi-Cheemaun”

17 Vollharding Shipyards: On successful course with wide product range

20 Personal dedication as the key to success: Klingenberg shipping line celebrating double anniversary

23 The container turns fifty, and … its success story is far from over

27 Caterpillar Common Rail system for medium-speed MaK marine engines: A great step forward

30 Remarkable Ships

32 Seen en Route

Titelfoto: Pleasure Craft, Commercial Shipping und Ocean-Going: Caterpillar serves all marine market segments

Diesel Engine Journal for our Business FriendsDecember 2006 No 81

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When the organiser released its glowing concluding report on SMM 2004, everyone in the

maritime world agreed that the results achieved were a top performance that would be hard to better. However, this forecast was certainly disproved by SMM 2006. Although Hamburg Trade Fair is currently undergoing redevel-opment, the overall area for the SMM could be increased by 5,000 sq.m. to 75,000 sq.m., creating space for a total of 1,669 exhibitors − about 200 more than at the event in 2004. The SMM, shortened for the first time to four days, also attracted a record 45,000 visitors, thus impressively confirming its status as the world’s leading trade fair for the shipbuilding industry and marine equipment suppliers. The gen-eral confidence in the global sector cer-

tainly contributed to this outstand-ing result. Bulging order books and the excellent prospects in shipbuild-ing markets in the next few years were impressively reflected in the upbeat mood at SMM 2006. But the SMM is also the showcase for new products and innovations in shipbuilding. SMM 2006 was certainly a barometer of the swift pace of development in the high technology sector of shipbuilding and marine equipment suppliers. Exhibitors from all areas came to Hamburg with world innovations or new products to present them for the first time to the expert audience. The international sig-nificance of this trade fair is also under-lined by the constant growth in for-eign exhibitor and visitor numbers. An impressive 63% of SMM exhibitors and 38% of visitors meanwhile come from

outside Germany. The exhibitors gener-ally confirmed the high expertise of the trade visitors. The national presenta-tions, totalling 20, are further evidence of how highly this fair is rated inter-nationally. Super yachts were repre-sented for the first time as a new area of the SMM. Although there are already established events for this growth seg-ment, German shipyards in particular reported serious contacts with poten-tial customers at SMM 2006.

Caterpillar’s presence at the SMM

In 2006, Caterpillar Marine Power Systems presented itself in the new hall A3, in which the entire engine and propulsion industry exhibited. The stand centrally located in the middle of the hall had a surface area of 300 sq.m.

Successful SMM 2006 and Caterpillar presentation

In the spotlight

SMM 2006 • Looking at the stand: l., 6 M 32 C with CCR, in front REMAN Info on the

right of Information Dealerlocator (screen) and Megayacht Package

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and, of course, as in previous years, had a second level covering 150 sq.m. The upper level was larger than in 2004 and offered seating at tables for a total of 84 persons. The two brands Cat and MaK and the areas Ocean-Going, Com-mercial Shipping, Product Support and for the first time the Mega Yachts area were presented.

Making Progress Possible

“Making Progress Possible” was the watchword – in all exhibition areas.

This reflects Caterpillar’s “Vision 2020” strategy and underlines its aim of offer-ing customers the best possible return on their investments. In shipping, it involves everything from project iden-tification to sales to the putting into operation of entire marine propulsion systems, ship financing and mainte-nance agreements, as well as the full range of logistics and reconditioning and other services for shipping lines and ship operators all over the world. Many of these services were presented at SMM 2006 with exhibits, videos and display panels, with a competent stand crew providing explanations to cus-tomers.

The eye-catcher at the CMPS stand was a medium-speed MaK 6 M 32 C engine equipped with the Caterpil-lar Common Rail (CCR) fuel system, a proven element of Caterpillar ACERTTM technology. Visitors could see how this technology is integrated in the engine, as the entire area in which the CCR technology is installed could be viewed and the specialists could observe every detail from a platform. The operation of CCR technology was demonstrated by a video film to show visitors the key components and how the system works.

The commercial engines area was presented with two exhibits: a Cat C18 genset consisting of C18 engine and Leroy Somer generator on a joint basic frame and flexibly mounted, as well as a Cat C4.4 genset encapsulated to reduce noise emissions.

Another focus was equipment for yachts and mega yachts. Visitors showed great interest in a fast-run-ning Cat 3516 marine engine equipped with REINJES gears on a single frame and flexibly mounted as a propulsion plant ready for installation in a mega

yacht. The exhibits also included a Cat C32 ACERT engine for the yacht area. This engine equipped with Cat-erpillar ACERTTM technology provides enhanced performance as well as lower emissions.

Demand for new engines remains high. Nevertheless, the Product Support area is very significant in view of the need to establish long-term customer relationships. Caterpillar certainly has something to offer in this respect with its network of 200 independent dealer organisations with 1,741 branches, as well as some 400 authorised dealers in ports and marinas – a total of more than 2,100 dealer locations worldwide manned by well-trained staff helping ship operators reduce their operating costs. At the SMM stand, the custom-ers had direct access via an online link to the Dealerlocator for quickly finding service stations in Caterpillar’s global sales and service network.

An inexpensive alternative to new parts are REMAN spare parts. This was shown by two M 32 cylinder heads, a used one after 30,000 operating hours and next to this a REMAN unit, illustrat-ing the high quality of the recondition-ing. This area was supported by a video film showing Caterpillar’s activities and technologies for reconditioning used parts to make them as good as new. It goes without saying that these carry the same warranty guarantee as new components.

Estimating operating costs is an ongoing challenge for many opera-tors. Customer Service Agreements can help here. The possibilities and advan-tages for customers were presented on a flat screen using a software program developed in-house. The great interest shown by visitors was certainly proof that demand is high in this area.

The information offered at the fair also included customer testimoni-als impressively confirming the high quality of products and service with statements for Cat and MaK engines, a PowerPoint presentation illustrat-ing the deployment of Cat and MaK engines in the three segments Pleas-ure Craft, Commercial Shipping and Ocean-Going with many different types of vessel and a film showing the functioning and advantages of the FCT system for smokeless operation of M 32 C engines.

Good engines and comprehensive product support are certainly vital, but personal contact with the propulsion experts from the Caterpillar team is also essential for nearly every project. Employees of Caterpillar Marine Power Systems from the areas EAME, Asia Pacific and Americas as well as Appli-cation Engineering and Product Sup-port were thus present at the SMM. All important dealers for MaK and Cat marine engines were also represented with personnel for assisting customers.

Accompanying events

A well-attended press conference was held on the first day of the SMM (September 26th) at which Vice Pres-ident Jim Parker, Roberto Dionisio, Dr. Frank Starke and Jaime Tetrault from the EAME sales organisation presented the developments over the previous two years and future objectives.

The crew of the training ship “Großherzogin Elisabeth” visited the stand to present a shanty as a token of appreciation for the generous support provided by MaK Deutschland/Zep-pelin with the overhaul of the over 30-year-old Caterpillar propulsion plant installed in their vessel.

Other highlights were two contract signing ceremonies. Pon Power (Neth-erlands) signed with Damen Shipyard Group (Netherlands) a delivery agree-ment for a further three years for approx. 1,500 engines (Cat and MaK). At the stand, MaK Deutschland signed a delivery agreement with MPC (Münch-meyer, Petersen Capital, Hamburg) for the installation of a MaK 6 M 43 main engine and two Caterpillar C18 units and a C18 auxiliary diesel plant in each of four ships.

All in all, a great success

Customer and visitor interest was high on all four days of SMM 2006. Despite the expanded seating capaci-ties in the upper area as well as three conference rooms at the stand and an additionally hired conference room in Hall A3 close to the stand, the space offered was frequently insufficient. The extremely high number of visitors was also an indication that the right sub-jects and products and services were presented at the fair.

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Lively disucssions

19th International Tug & Salvage Convention and Exhibition

All the major market players met to swap ideas at the 19th ITS confer-

ence from April 24th-28th 2006 in the conference rooms of the Beurs-World Trade Center in the heart of Rotter-dam, only a few minutes on foot from the Harbour Museum and ten min-utes by car from Europe’s largest con-tainer port. You meet the traditional and modern face of shipping at every turn in Rotterdam: shipping is present everywhere – in small port areas or in the canal system or on the Nieuwe Maas – and simply belongs to the city and its people. Witness the many his-toric and often lovingly restored ships, such as tugs, inland waterway vessels,

“tjalks” (single-masted, fl at-bottomed coastal units) and water craft gener-ally – or just stroll along the Nieuwe Maas or, better still, gaze at all the activity on the water from the impres-sive Erasmus Bridge spanning the Nieuwe Maas. But more on this later.

A Commitment for Cat The ITS con-ference is an event that puts a certain responsibility on Caterpillar Marine Power Systems because of its market leadership in this market segment – hence its broadly based commitment in the form of a prestigious exhibition stand, contribution for the conference and sponsoring activity.

The position of the stand in Beurs-World Trade Center is strategically oriented directly behind the main entrance and an attraction of the event, the presentation basin for model tugs of the Dutch model tug builders club. These models show impressive attention to detail and are just as manoeuvrable as the originals. The demonstration of the tiny tugs was both an attraction and a play-ground for many visitors and exhibi-tors. On the second day of the confer-ence, Kevin Bruch, Assistant Director Engine Research, Technical Services Division of Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, out-

lined in a technical workshop Cat-erpillar’s eff orts and achievements in the area of emission reduction to comply with the emission regulations that can be expected in the future. In the afternoon, the conference took a break to take part in the meanwhile traditional tug parade with as high-light the tug ballet, which was per-formed for the fi rst time in 1978, when the conference took place in Hamburg, and since then has been a permanent part of the event. Tugs and off shore ships, some over a cen-tury old, were presented immediately in front of Rotterdam Cruise Termi-nal with Erasmus Bridge in the back-ground, keenly watched by thousands of onlookers on the banks and on the bridge. It was a fi ne demonstration of the great tradition as well as forward-looking orientation of this special area of shipping. Then four tugs gave an impressive display of their capabil-ities in the tug ballet.

A Grand Finale The Thursday was another normal working day for the conference participants and stand crews. The grand fi nale was

then held in Rotterdam Cruise Termi-nal in the evening. About 600 persons attended the Caterpillar Gala Dinner. All the guests were welcomed by an artist group, the magical White Wings, in the fi nest weather and individually greeted by employees of Caterpillar EAME, the sales organisation for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, as well as repre-sentatives of the Dutch sales organ-isation Pon Power. An interesting evening began with a cocktail recep-tion and lively discussions, followed by a 5-course dinner. Artists entertained the guests with acrobatics, conjuring, magic and singing, and fi nally there was a dance. The dance area was well frequented up to the early morning hours. The charming Anouschka Wink, a former Miss Holland, compered the programme.

“Great location, great weather, great business and great fun” was how one guest summed up the event before disappearing in a taxi. See you at the 20th ITS conference in Hong Kong in 2008 everybody, and many thanks to Alan Brunton Reed and his crew.

Part of impressive „tug ballet“

In the spotlight

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Holland America Line

MaK engines for the new cruise ship of the „Signature“ class

Cruises represent an exclusive business that has also enjoyed constant growth for many years.

More than 450 cruise ships are cur-rently in service offering a very wide range of programmes and holiday des-tinations, and over 50 new liners are under construction or on order. Cater-pillar Marine Power Systems is clearly gaining ground in this fiercely compet-itive market. It has concluded another significant contract thanks to tech-nical innovations and organisational adjustments, which have proved effec-tive, along with its already successful record for engines installed in cruise ships.

Promptly in time for this year’s Cruise Shipping Convention in Miami, Cater-pillar Marine Power Systems again con-cluded a contract with Carnival Cor-poration, the world’s largest cruise operator, following its order from AIDA Cruises last year. Caterpillar Marine is to deliver the propulsion plant for the

first ship of the “Signature” class, being built for Holland America Line (HAL) of Carnival Group at the yard of Fin-cantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani in Mar-ghera. Four MaK 12 M 43 C and two MaK 8 M 43 C engines with an overall output of 64,000 kW will be installed in this vessel to provide the energy for the propulsion system and ship mains. In addition to this firm order, the con-tract includes an option for twelve MaK marine engines for the propul-sion plants of two repeat vessels – a great success for the long-term policy of Caterpillar Marine Power Systems in the cruise shipping business and another key milestone within its long-term development programme.

A dream ship

The 86,000t Panamax ship of the “Signature” class, due to enter service in summer 2008, will be able to accom-modate 2,611 passengers. This is HAL’s

14th vessel and its largest to date. The value of the order is put at US$450m. The overall newbuilding programme for four ships agreed between Carnival and Fincantieri is worth over US$1 bil-lion.

The vessel of the “Signature” class is a refinement of the “Vista” class rep-resented by the “Zuiderdam”, “Ooster-dam”, “Westerdam” and “Noordam”, commissioned between 2002 and 2006. HAL serves over 280 ports in all conti-nents with 13 ships deployed in the premium cruise sector. HAL, founded in 1873, was completely taken over by Carnival Corporation in 1989. This group now includes twelve companies and 79 vessels with a capacity of over 137,000 beds. Further ships are under construction or on order.

The newbuilding now ordered fea-tures all well-known features from the HAL “Signature of Excellence” programme offering new services and amenities for passengers. These

Cruise liner „Deutschland“ is driven by MaK engines too

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include, for example, a deck restaurant seating 144 guests, an excellent wine lounge, a baths section and the larg-est fitness room ever provided on a HAL ship. In the technical area, the “Signa-ture” class has state-of-the-art navi-gation and safety systems, including equipment for dynamic positioning. It is fitted with six MaK M 43 C diesels driving alternating current generators, ensuring the necessary energy for the Azipod propulsion technology, as well as all shipboard plants and auxiliary systems.

Reliable energy supply

The HAL order is the fruit of close cooperation between Caterpillar Marine Power Systems, HAL itself, Carni-val Corporate Shipbuilding, the Fincan-tieri shipyard and the Italian Caterpil-lar dealer CGT, according to Leif Gross, Sales Director Global Cruise Projects at Caterpillar Marine Power Systems. “In the end, however, we convinced the customer with the combination of proven engine reliability, tailor-made preparation and start-up times and innovative pollutant reduction tech-nology. Each MaK M 43 C engine will be fitted with FCT, Flexible Camshaft Tech-nology, so that at all load levels no vis-

ible smoke will be emitted and emis-sion of nitrogen oxides will be below the limit values of the current regu-lation of IMO, the International Mari-time Organization.” Moreover, both the shipyard and the shipping line have already gained comprehensive experi-ence with the trouble-free operation of Cat® 3508/3512 gensets already used in the fleet.

Ongoing success story

The MaK M 43 launched in the market in 1998 supplemented the gen-eration of medium-speed MaK long-stroke M 20, M 25 and M 32 marine diesel engines with a fourth model in the upper performance area. Since then, Caterpillar Marine Power Systems has sold more than five hundred of the 6-, 7-, 8-, 9- and 12-cylinder engines of the MaK M43 series with an overall output of over 3,600 MW.

The order for four MaK 12 M 43 C and two MaK 8 M 43 C engines for the “Signature” class certainly represents an outstanding achievement. Seen over the longer term, it is another milestone in the ongoing success story of the Cat-erpillar propulsion units installed in remarkable cruise ships. In 2005, Cat-erpillar Marine Power Systems con-

cluded a widely regarded contract with AIDA Cruises – German Branch of Costa Crociere for the propulsion plants of its vessels of the “Sphinx” class to be built by Meyer Werft in Papenburg, the lead-ing German cruise ship yard, for deliv-ery between 2007 and 2009. This con-tract comprises three firm orders each for four MaK 9 M 43 C units with a total output of 36,000 kW per ship, plus an option for a fourth vessel.

Prior to 2004, these power plants enjoyed a long run of success in vari-ous areas of global passenger shipping: Caterpillar Marine Power Systems and the predecessor company Krupp MaK Maschinenbau could cite over 50 cruise ships and ferries in their reference lists for marine propulsion systems in the past 25 years.

The many other vessels worth men-tioning include the trio of cruise ships “Sun Bay” (now “Expedition”), “Sun Bay II” (now “Constellation”) and “Orion”, built between 2001 and 2003 by the German Cassens-Werft in Emden. Each of these vessels, offer-ing an exclusive atmosphere for about a hundred passengers, is powered by a MaK M 25 engine with a nominal output of 1,850 kW at 750/min. An even more impressive ship aesthetically is the “Sea Cloud II”, a luxury large sailing

“Signature”-Class

MaK 12 M 43 C engine. Four units of this type as well as two 8-cylinder engines are to be installed in the newbuilding.

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vessel delivered in 2000 by the Spanish yard Astilleros Gondán in Figueras. This 117m long three-masted ship modelled on the legendary “Sea Cloud”, which was built about 80 years ago in Kiel, gives about 90 persons an unforgetta-ble cruise experience. If there is occa-sionally no wind, the ship’s two MaK 8 M 20 diesel engines provide a speed of 14 knots – 2 knots more than the maximum possible speed with 24 sails set providing an overall 2,528 sq.m. of canvas.

As regards passengers’ dreams, the German “dream ship” from the well-known TV series is in reality the “Deutschland”, which has been in serv-ice since 1998 for the Peter Deilmann shipping line in Neustadt. This five-star 22,400 grt vessel takes up to 600 passengers on global cruises. Her four medium-speed MaK engines, two 8 M 32 and two 6 M 32 in a father and son plant, deliver a propulsion output of 12,300 kW for the world trips, with

two 9 M 20 engines guaranteeing the power supply at all times. Inciden-tally, the former main “stage” of the “dream ship” series, the cruise ship “Berlin”, built in 1981, was also fitted with a MaK propulsion plant, as were the “Crown Odyssey” of Royal Cruise Line, today in service for Star Cruises, “Hanseatic” of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises and “Costa Europa” of Costa Crociere (which used to be known as the “Westerdam” and “Homeric”) – and many more ves-sels besides.

Caterpillar Marine Power Systems not only makes impressive cruise ships “seaworthy” but also provides propul-sion on some remarkable passenger vessels cruising on European inland waterways. The “River Cloud” with its two MaK 6 M 20 engines has been taking passengers between the North Sea and Black Sea since 1996, while the “Viking Burgundy” and “Viking Seine”, each incorporating two Cat 3508 engines, have been carrying up to

150 persons on the Rhône and Saône rivers in France since 2000. These ves-sels were joined in 2005 by the “Viking Sun” plying the Rhine. Then there is a long list of mega yachts powered by various Cat marine engines. And it also worth noting that an impres-sive number of Cat and MaK engines ensure reliable propulsion and elec-tricity generation on passenger ferries all over the world. It is generally a suc-cess story of which the company can be and is proud.

All in all, the contract for the “Signature” class undoubtedly repre-sents a great success for Caterpillar Marine Power Systems and all mem-bers of the Caterpillar team, includ-ing the Caterpillar dealer CGT (Italy) and Zeppelin/MaK Deutschland. Even more importantly, this order can be regarded as the basis for the further growth of Caterpillar Marine Power Systems in the international cruise ship market.

Apart from the four 12 M 43C also two of those 8 M 43C will be installed

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Following the delivery of the first two MaK 9 M 43 C engines from Caterpillar Motorenwerk Rostock

to Meyer Werft in Papenburg in April, a further two engines of this type were delivered to the German cruise ship specialist after passing their accept-ance test in early June. All four engines of the propulsion plant for the “AID-Adiva”, the first of four new AIDA club ships planned, are thus at the yard. Keeping to an ambitious schedule, the impressive engine quartet has mean-while been installed in the engine room of the “AIDAdiva” that is taking shape.

The “Sphinx” project

With this project, Caterpillar Marine Power Systems is taking another great step forward with its long-term strat-egy in the cruise ship segment. A year ago, Meyer Werft signed the contract for four MaK 9 M 43 C engines for installation in the next generation of AIDA cruise ships. It decided to coop-erate with Caterpillar Marine after car-rying out a detailed analysis of rival systems, with special attention being paid to a low sound level, high reliabil-ity and low pollutant emissions. In late summer 2005, AIDA Cruises – a subsid-iary of Costa Crociere, itself owned by the market leader Carnival Corporation

– decided to order a third vessel of the “Sphinx” class. On the occasion of its tenth anniversary on June 12th 2006, AIDA Cruises then placed an order for a fourth sister ship from Meyer Werft. Work on the first vessel began in Octo-ber 2005, and the keel-laying ceremony was held in Papenburg on March 3rd 2006. The “AIDAdiva” is due for delivery on April 15th 2007 – after a construc-tion time of 400 days. The other three ships are to follow in 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Each newbuilding has a length of 252m and a beam of 32.2m and pro-vides 1,025 cabins, accommodating a total of 2,050 passengers. The pro-pulsion system comprises four MaK engines 9 M 43 C with an overall output of 36,000 kW, driving two single propel-

lers via electric motors as well as two bow thrusters and two stern thrust-ers. The plant also generates the elec-tricity for all other high-consumption systems on board, such as the aircon-ditioning plant, hotel/restaurant facil-ities and the state-of-the-art wellness area. There is also, of course, adequate engine performance for the propulsion of the 68,500 gt newbuildings, which have a top speed of 21 knots.

Tailor-made propulsion plant

To ensure higher engine reliabil-ity, AIDA opted for a specially adapted design of the M 43 C. This offers as additional features:

A slow turning device for reliable engine remote starting A connecting rod bearing tempera-ture monitoring system to prevent the bearings seizing upAdvanced resilient engine mounting to minimise engine vibrations and their transmission on to the hull and The DICARE monitoring system, per-mitting users to call up engine operat-ing data at any time, even from shoreFor cruise ship operation, it is also

very important that each of the MaK 9 M 43 C engines features the Flexible Camshaft Technology (FCT). This proven element of Caterpillar’s ACERTTM tech-nology was developed to keep soot par-ticle emissions over the entire load area

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below the optical perception limit and reduce NOx emissions to well below the IMO limit values.

Test passed

These additional functions of MaK 9 M 43 C engines specially envisaged for AIDA Cruises were accordingly the focus of attention for customer accept-ance. Representatives of AIDA Cruises, Meyer Werft, Germanischer Lloyd, Car-nival Corporate Shipbuilding and the Caterpillar dealer Zeppelin/MaK Deut-schland attended the two-day test run on the engine stand at Caterpillar Motoren Rostock.

After two very busy days, all the nec-essary measurement results were finally available. All the participants approved the concluding report of the acceptance test for the MaK 9 M 43 C, which yielded extraordinarily posi-tive results. The new vibration dampers proved to be very effective, the engines started even with very low available air pressure and the Flexible Camshaft Technology of MaK proved to be highly successful in reducing soot particle emissions.

Delighted customers

“Flawless, clean design with very good access to all main components,” was how Chris Joly, Principal Manager –

MaK M 43 C engines for the „AIDAdiva“

First engine quartet delivered to Meyer Werft

AI DA-Newbuilding

With its appearance and its concept the vessels of the “Sphinx” class will surely inspirit the international market of cruise vessels

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Marine Engineering at Carni-val Corporate Shipbuilding in Southampton (UK), summa-rises his overall impression of the MaK 9 M 43 C. Mr Joly also emphasises the excel-lent support provided via Caterpillar Marine and the various specialist groups in the Caterpillar engine plants in Kiel and Rostock. “We’re delighted to experience this engine in deployment. We expect reliability in opera-tion and low fuel consump-tion,” Joly adds. “We’re par-ticularly pleased by the Flexible Camshaft Technol-ogy (FCT) and the fact that this ensures extremely low soot particle emissions even with minimum output – exactly reflecting Carnival’s focus on sustainable devel-opment and environmental protection.”

“High engine perform-ance and dedicated cus-tomer advisory service” is also the verdict of Jens Kohlmann, Senior Super-intendent Machinery, and Detlef Stremlow, Superin-tendent Newbuildings Machinery at AIDA Cruises in Rostock (Germany).

“The surface temperatures correspond to SOLAS, the sound levels are below the limit values, the engine vibra-tions are restricted to a minimum, and the plant complies with the low pre-scribed levels for fuel consumption,” says Stremlow, soberly reading off the entries in his check list. Kohlmann and Stremlow are also impressed by the easy accessibility to every area of the MaK 9 M 43 C for inspection purposes.

“We’re delighted by the results for the acceptance test of the engines for the ship,” concludes Kohlmann, “but from the standpoint of an operator, we’re even happier about the performance that can be expected in daily opera-tion on board.”

Satisfied shipyard

“The AIDA engine plant offers numerous technical improvements,” explains Jürgen Storz, head of the

Mechanical Engineering Group at Meyer Werft, “particularly for reduc-ing emissions and minimising vibra-tions and for engine automation.” In particular, very strict limit values for soot particles and NOx over the entire load area required an advanced engine design “and the selected FCT system of MaK offered a very good performance,” emphasises Heinz-Her-mann Jungeblut from the Mechani-cal Engineering Group at Meyer Werft. Strict requirements as regards vibra-tions also necessitated careful inspec-tion of the engine vibrations and their effects on the built-on equipment and also vibrations transferred to the engine substructure, thus considera-bly affecting passenger comfort. “The new resilient dampers have in any case demonstrated their effective-ness: all vibration measurements were well below the specified limits,” notes Jungeblut.

“Special priority was given to the auto-mation system required by the yard for

the engine plant. Caterpil-lar and Meyer Werft cooper-ated closely to develop this,” comments Storz. The system comprises a safety manage-ment system and an alarm/monitoring system with a bus connector to the con-trolling automation system of the ship. Its function and the interaction with the engines were fully tested on the test stand. The con-necting cables are ready, a class approval of the entire systems being made pos-sible for the plant accept-ance tests. This is an impor-tant advantage for the yard, according to Storz:

“This innovative approach creates confidence even from the test stand phase and saves us a great deal of time with the later putting into operation of the engines on board the vessel.”

That is also confirmed by Aloys Meemann, who heads the project management at Meyer Werft and is respon-sible for the punctual deliv-

ery of all four AIDA ships: “We’re con-vinced that all parties involved have done everything required to pro-vide the ship owner with an innova-tive yet uncomplicated and therefore reliable engine plant. We’re highly satisfied with the cooperation with Caterpillar.”

One hardly needs to add any-thing to these statements from the experts, except perhaps a conclud-ing comment from Leif Gross, Sales Director Global Cruise Projects at Caterpillar Marine: “The Caterpillar team is extraordinarily proud that it is equipping the new AIDA cruise ships with the basis of a powerful yet cost-efficient and low-emission pro-pulsion plant. We’re already looking forward to April 2007, when the “AID-Adiva” will be named in Hamburg – the people of this city are meanwhile known as enthusiastic fans of cruise ships, including those at the head-quarters of Caterpillar Marine Power Systems.”

Dedicated for the “AIDAdiva” – shipment of one MaK 9 M 43 C engine

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In line with its philosophy of ensur-ing that all its engines remain state-of-the-art, Caterpillar has refined

its M 20 engine series, which has been successfully established in the market for 14 years, and will now distribute it under the type designation M 20 C.

Caterpillar started its new advanced MaK long-stroke engine programme with the market launch of the M 20 in 1992. With the three series M 32 (1994), M 25 (1996) and M 43 (1998) subsequently introduced every two years, MaK diesel engines now cover an output range of 1,020-16,000 kW.

In common with all types of the MaK long-stroke engine generation, the units of the M 20 series are opti-mised to meet the special require-ments of ship operation and are highly reliable and cost-efficient. With their long-stroke design concept and the concentration on fewer components with high function integration, they have proved optimal for installation as both main propulsion unit and marine auxiliary genset in a very wide range of vessels.

As a typical representative of the highly developed MaK long-stroke engine family, the M 20 meets the cur-rent IMO guidelines; NOx emissions with fixed engine timing and without exhaust gas aftertreatment are defi-nitely below the defined limit value.

An optimal combustion process is achieved with the combination of moderate speed, high injection pres-sure, high compression and precisely adjusted turbocharging. This results in low specific fuel consumption, heavy fuel suitability and low emissions – characteristics that guarantee high acceptance in the market.

High cost-efficiency is achieved by the interaction of low fuel and lube oil consumption and long component service life. The maintenance inter-vals are 15,000 hours. High reliability in both MDO and heavy fuel operation is thus guaranteed.

The engines of the M 20 C series are supplied as in-line engines in a 6-, 8-

MaK M 20 C

Enhanced M 20 series offering many advantages for the operator

New Design Features

M20C sectional drawingCamshaft

New engine block

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and 9-cylinder version. With an output per cylinder of 170 kW at 900 rpm or 190 kW at 1,000rpm, they offer a per-formance range of 1,020-1,710 kW. The M20 series as the smallest series of the current MaK long-stroke

engine range is designed for instal-lation as propulsion engine for small cargo ships, e.g. coastal freighters and inland waterway vessels, as propul-sion unit for work boats, such as tugs, fishing vessels and offshore ships,

and as auxiliary genset for generat-ing electricity on containerships and passenger vessels.

Extensive operating experience

Caterpillar Marine Power Systems has sold over 1,100 engines of the MaK M 20 type since its introduction, with 43% being installed as main pro-pulsion plant and 57% as genset or intended for this purpose. The first engine of this type delivered was put into operation in 1992 as the pro-pulsion plant for an inland water-way tanker. The approx. 900 engines installed since then have proved their reliability with an overall service life exceeding 19 million operating hours. The propulsion engines installed in inland waterway vessels have had the longest service life. Thus, the pro-pulsion engine of the inland water-way tanker (6M20) “Stold Rom” (ex

“Alchimist Frankfurt”) has clocked up over 78,000 operating hours, closely followed by the propulsion engine of the pusher craft “Veerhaven VIII” with 77,000 operating hours. It is worth noting that 57% of the engines deployed as auxiliary gensets and 13% of the units as main engines run on heavyfuel.

New design features of the M 20 C

The enhancement based on operating experience and new research findings includes the following main design modifications: Dual-circuit cooling system with easier installation and increased effi-ciency based on higher cooling water temperatures of up to 90°C Simplification of the design of the exhaust gas lines including complete cladding of the exhaust gas system for an even more compact and easily maintainable engine with corre-spondingly reduced space require-ment Upgraded turbocharging with a tur-bocharger with higher efficiency The success story of the M 20 in the market will be continued with the M 20 C thanks to its design features and simplified maintenance and a further reduction in piping. The transition will be smooth, beginning with engine deliveries from autumn 2006.

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The picture is showing an engine of the new generation of M20 series, an 8 M 20 C

The Schubboot “Veerhaven VIII” is driven by three MaK M 20, which has passed already more than 77.000 running hours

12

Following comprehensive audits carried out by ten leading ship classification societies in Febru-

ary 2006, Caterpillar Motoren GmbH & Co. KG recently obtained certification for its plant in Guangdong (VR China) in accordance with ISO 9001:2000, the works approval, shop approval and type approval for the MaK M 25 engine. Caterpillar Motoren Guang-dong Co. Ltd., one of Caterpillar’s main production plants in China, focuses on assembling marine engines of type MaK M 25.

“We considerably expanded our Guangdong plant production capac-ity, test stands and quality control in 2005,” explains Fernando Cantu, Product Manager Large Medium Speed Engines, at Caterpillar Motoren. “We’re thus optimally prepared to meet the increasing demand for marine engines of type MaK M 25 in both the local and international market. With the expan-sion of the Guangdong plant, we have above all succeeded in enabling Caterpillar Marine Power Systems to do an even better job of meet-ing the requirements of the increas-ing number of Asian shipyards and shipping lines.”

Tradition in quality management

The company in Guangdong was founded in 1994 by two diesel engine makers that at that time could already boast a success story of over 90 years: the German MaK Motoren GmbH and Chinese Guangzhou Diesel Engine Fac-tory. Since 1996, the plant has been producing the outstanding MaK M 453 C diesel series engines for marine propulsion systems, gensets and power stations. Since 2005, Caterpil-lar Motoren Guangdong Co. Ltd has been fully owned by Caterpillar Inc. and is meanwhile the largest produc-tion plant for medium-speed engines in southern China.

The Guangdong facility is firmly integrated into the global produc-tion and quality assurance system of Caterpillar®; it is guaranteed that the

engines produced meet the high qual-ity standard as known from the other Caterpillar marine engine plants in the USA, Germany, Belgium and the UK. The recent certification by Det Norske Veritas (DNV) conforming to ISO 9001:2000 confirms that the pro-cedures applied, communication used and handling of production tar-gets meet the highest international standards. Moreover, customers bene-fit from the successful corporate phi-losophy of continuous improvement, in accordance with which the plant management and all employees work day by day. After the annual auditing was successfully completed in accord-ance with ISO 9001:2000 in Kiel and

Rostock in December 2005, all MaK marine engine plants now operate in accordance with standard quality standards.

Approval for plant and production process

In addition to certification of the quality management by DNV, repre-sentatives of ten international ship classification societies have inspected the process of the engine assembly and audit procedures, which finally led to the “works approval” for the Guang-dong plant. This certificate, which rep-resents a prerequisite for the entire marine engine business, was issued

Tested quality

Certification for Caterpillar Motoren Guangdong Co. Ltd

Quality Management

The MaK M 25 at the test bed

13

after a comprehensive local audit by American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), Bureau Veritas (BV), Chinese Classifi-cation Society (CCS), Det Norske Ver-itas (DNV), Germanischer Lloyd (GL), Korean Register of Shipping (KR), Lloyd’s Register (LR), Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK), Registro Italiano Navale (RINA) and Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS).

“This is an impressive show of con-fidence in that the ship classification societies that also regularly audit the MaK plants in Kiel and Rostock have given the Guangdong plant their ‘shop approval’,” explains Dr. Wolf-gang Sprogis, Quality Director at Cat-erpillar Motoren. “The approval entails an enormous shortening of our lead times for the certificates of the ship classification societies, which we need for the series production of the marine engines.” Production processes, logis-tics and engine parts used in Guang-dong meet the standard in Kiel or Rostock in every respect and thus bene-fit from the advance qualification from the classification societies. This shop approval entitles Caterpillar Motoren to stamp parts and certificates in the

name of specific classification socie-ties, i.e. American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), Bureau Veritas (BV), Det Norske Veritas (DNV), Germanischer Lloyd (GL), Lloyd’s Register (LR), Registro Italiano Navale (RINA) and Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS). The Chinese Classification Society (CCS) does not offer any shop approvals, and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) and Korean Reg-ister of Shipping (KR) are new to MaK marine engine classification.

MaK M 25 for even higher performance

Apart from the preparation for cer-tification according to ISO 9001:2000, for works approval and for shop approval, the engine test required for these inspections was used to obtain a further type approval for a higher-performance version of the MaK series M 25 with 334 kW cylinder output. The measurement data recorded and evaluation of all results by the repre-sentatives of the ship classification societies met all requirements. Unlike the shop approval, which is only plant-related, the type approval issued in

Guangdong automatically applies to all globally assembled marine engines of type MaK M 25 with an output of 334 kW/cylinder, so the plant in Kiel can also produce these type-approved higher-performance M 25 engines.

The cylinder nominal outputs approved by the classification socie-ties range from 300 kW to 330 kW and up to 334 kW, so there is an even wider deployment range for this marine engine MaK M 25 in the market.

World class for the customer

The bottleneck with engine availa-bility has been removed according to Fernando Cantu: “By strengthening the activities in Guangdong, we are able to boost production of the MaK M 25 to meet demand. The custom-ers of Caterpillar Marine Power Sys-tems will undoubtedly benefit from shorter delivery times, and we will most certainly maintain the outstand-ing quality of the engine approved by the classification societies. In other words, we will guarantee top products from top plants, irrespective of where they are.”

A 9 MaK M 25 ready to delivery

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No one could pretend that gazing into a crystal ball to divine the future of

shipping might provide a relia-ble way of predicting how this transport market will develop in the next quarter of a century. But there are definite param-eters that have very recently become very evident, and these can serve as an orientation basis for investment decisions for new ships or installation of new propulsion plants in ves-sels in order to offer some secu-rity that the particular system will be commercially viable for the projected period of use, no matter whether a private-sector or a public-sector asset is involved.

The replacement of the entire main and auxiliary machinery of the Ro-Pax ferry “M/S Chi-Cheemaun” is based on a extended view of these principles with the aim of ensuring that the ship is equipped in such a way that it can satisfy the requirements and demands likely to made on it over the next 25 years. This also includes the consid-eration that this vessel will probably remain the only service provider on its special route.

The “M/S Chi-Cheemaun” was built in 1974 by Collingwood Shipyard for Owen Sound Transportation Com-pany, which was at that time owned by Ontario Northland, a state com-pany concerned with creating a ship, rail and telecoms infrastructure in the northern Canadian province of Ontario. In the past 30 years, the “M/S Chi-Cheemaun” has provided the vital ferry link between Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario and South Baymouth on the south-eastern tip of Manitoulin Island. It operates from mid-May to the end of October and has become increasingly popular for both passenger and freight trans-port as a convenient shortening of the route to or from the north while at the same time offering a good view of the beautiful landscape.

With additional marketing initia-tives, in recent years the ship has been

offered for special cruises and use as a floating conference venue as well as for special events outside the reg-ular schedule. The revenues thereby achieved have been reinvested in the vessel in order to offer the ferry pas-sengers and users more comfort and thus a more attractive overall voyage. This reorientation has been due in particular to the greater customer focus after the shipping line was put under the Ontario Ministry of North-ern Development and Mines. However, Owen Sound Transportation Com-pany (OSTC), an Operational Enterprise Agency of the Province of Ontario, has full responsibility for ship manage-ment and marketing.

Planning for a renewal of the entire engine plant began at the end of the 1990s, when it became obvious that the existing systems could no longer be economically operated for another 25 years. Although the machines had run very well with only little or no mal-functions, there were increasing con-cerns that downtimes caused by the operating time and thus repairs could be expected in future. Ferry operators are only too well aware that irregu-larities in schedules upset customers and thus result in financial losses. This prompted OSTC to install a new pro-pulsion plant in the ship and upgrade many important relevant systems.

As the “M/S Chi-Cheemaun” operates in an area of excep-tional natural beauty, one of the main considerations with the new engine plant was to achieve a significant reduction in emissions from the engine plant, i.e. NOx. OSTC was ini-tially guided by the IMO Annex VI, but then decided to reach the limit values for marine engines exhaust gas emissions according to EPA Tier 1 even before its introduction by the Canadian government. In addi-tion to this decision in favour of environmental protection, there was the need to reduce fuel and lube oil consumption. At the beginning of project plan-ning, it was therefore decided

to adopt a new engine plant design better oriented to the ship’s operat-ing profile. As Brian Pyke, technical director of OSTC, comments: “As I’ve always worked as a marine engineer and inspector, I’ve witnessed a grad-ual consolidation trend among marine engine makers, and it’s clear that only a few large international suppliers will remain in the very near future. It was very important to select one from this small group, and we assessed all sup-pliers’ offers from this point of view. As regards service, we were gener-ally more satisfied with North Ameri-can makers than European companies, and this also played a part in our deci-sion-making process.”

The project also aimed to reduce the number of cylinders in the new engine plant, which prompted the decision to replace the 12-cylinder diesel bow thruster propulsion with a 500 hp alternating current motor with vari-able speed. This required an increase in ship mains capacity from 1,200 kW to 1,800 kW, which was made possi-ble with the installation of three new Caterpillar 3508B/SR4B marine diesel units developing 1,200 1/min and 600 kW meeting the EPA Tier 1 regulations. These V8 cylinder plants replaced the original V12-cylinder ones and fitted very well in the cramped engine room. Two of these new units operating in

Caterpillar Engines

New engine plant for the „M/S Chi-Cheemaun“

Plant Management

The three new Caterpillar 3508B engines will provide a total power of 1800 kW

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parallel have sufficient capacity for driving the bow thruster as well as supplying the accom-modation rooms.

Instead of modify-ing the original switch-board, a completely new switchboard with state-of-the-art control technology was designed and installed by Canal Marine from St. Catharines for opti-mal control of the higher electricity requirement. This permits complete remote control of the gensets in both automatic and hand operation. Various electric motor control consoles were also replaced, as many components had meanwhile become obsolete. The new control consoles were designed to cope with the higher potential fault currents of the plants working with increased capacity.

A new Caterpillar C9 6-cylinder series engine with radiator cooling and an output of 200 kW as stand-by unit replaced the original V12-cylinder unit. The engine can be started with compressed air and electrically, thus providing a completely redundant start system in accordance with the regulations of Lloyd’s Register of Ship-ping. The stand-by unit installed in the area immediately below the ship funnel can feed the network within five seconds to supply important elec-tric plants.

All new Caterpillar engines are equipped with fuel and lube oil sys-tems conforming with SOLAS and offer an extra degree of safety, although this was no requirement. All engines are built in accordance with the high requirements of the quality assur-ance programme of Lloyd’s Regis-ter of Shipping. Since its refit, the

“M/S Chi-Cheemaun” has been subject to inspection by Transport Canada and with the renewal of the engine plant has been covered by classification under Lloyd’s Register of Shipping.

Improvements in environmental pro-tection included replacing all exhaust gas insulation with asbestos-free materials and cleaning the ventilation shaft unit to remove dust and parti-cle deposits. New diesel-fired Fulton

boilers featuring the latest burner technology and much higher effi-ciency were provided for generating steam for heating the accommodation. The work on the exhaust gas systems also included increasing the capacity of the main engines. Four 6-cylinder C280 Caterpillar main engines are to be installed in the second phase after the end of the 2006 operating season.

In a pre-audit carried out by Torom-ont, the supplier of the entire engine package, it became evident that four new funnel shafts with a diameter of 500 cm as well as exhaust silenc-ers with a bore of 550 cm and high damping factor have to be provided in order to meet the physical require-ments of the new propulsion engines with 1,730 bkW/900 1/min. These changes were already implemented in phase one of the new engine installa-tion, and thus no further work in this respect will be necessary in phase two, except for providing the direct con-nection required to the new propul-sion engines.

As Brian Pyke notes: “Enhanced plant management was one of the main factors determining our selec-tion of the electronically controlled main and auxiliary engines. The pos-sibility of being able to call up oper-ating and diagnosis data for review purposes and in real time will help us optimise our maintenance manage-ment programme, cut costs and max-imise operating reliability. We were very impressed by the capability of the Caterpillar ADEM engine control mod-ules to display critical information. Our maintenance management pro-gramme is based on fuel consumption, operating material analysis and non-destructive tests and measurements instead of mere operating hours. The reduction in the use of lubricants and wet filters with the relevant disposal

costs will considera-bly lower operating costs and the environ-mental impact with-out thereby impairing engine service life and operating reliability”.

Following the suc-cessful completion of

the first phase of the project, plan-ning is already well under way for phase two of the replacement of the propulsion plant. The Caterpillar C280-6 engines will be delivered from the Caterpillar plant in Lafayette, Indi-ana (USA) in the third quarter of 2006. New engine room and bridge consoles designed and built by Prime Mover Controls Inc., based in Vancouver, will be installed and the entire alarm and monitoring system upgraded to dig-ital technology. Two new twin reduc-tion gears with integrated clutch have been delivered in advance by Lufkin Industries Inc. (Lufkin, Texas) to replace the existing single reduction gearbox.

In this connection, Susan Schrempf, the manager of OSTC, notes: “We’ve formulated very clear objectives for extending the service life of the ‘M/S Chi-Cheemaun’. The ship makes a key contribution to the economy in Ontario, and our aim was not only to maintain the vessel in full working order, but also to operate it in a cost-efficient and environment-friendly way for another 25 years. The ship’s technical crew is also enthusiastic about the new technology installed on board, as it makes it possible to run units according to the latest tech-nical standard, which has become increasingly infrequent in the Great Lakes area. We expect to achieve an immediate reduction in operating costs, making the vessel very compet-itive for the remainder of her service life. The “M/S Chi-Cheemaun”, after all, belongs to the people of Ontario. We thus have to maintain as well as increase her value. Our results to date would certainly please every shipping line aiming to achieve the best possi-ble return on capital and environment-friendly operation, no matter whether in private or public ownership”.

The three new Caterpillar 3508B engines will provide a total power of 1800 kW

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Volharding Shipyards, which has its administrative headquarters in Westerbroek, is one of the large

groups that are typical of the struc-ture of the Dutch shipbuilding indus-try. Like most Dutch yards, this group, or rather the shipyards belonging to it, can look back on a long history, which

“somehow began with the construction of barges for shipping peat”. With this impressive tradition, it has acquired a deep-seated expertise and quiet self-confidence that is clearly evident in all its activities.

The first reliable report on ship-building activity in this group dates from 1768. It refers to the construc-tion of a barge “tjalk” (single-masted flat-bottomed coastal craft) in Foxhol that was given the unusual name “Het Blote Hol” for an owner in Groningen. It is also established that in 1919 the brothers GJF and GJ Bodewes set up a shipyard in Foxhol under their sur-name at this old shipbuilding site to which the present company can be directly traced. In 1955, the broth-ers established a second shipyard a few hundred metres away. In order to keep the two facilities separate, the new yard was given the name Gruno, while the other operated from then on as Volharding. In 2001, after acquiring Frisian Shipyard, the com-pany gained its present name Volhar-ding Shipyards. After several changes in the management, always within the family, and a reorganisation in 1992, a little later Geert Jan Bodewes took over at the head of the company

as majority shareholder and general manager.

The yard founded by the Bodewes brothers initially built inland water-way vessels and tugs. Later, it pro-duced coastal motor ships and in par-ticular fishing vessels. It also built its first special-purpose vessels in the late 1980s. The first of these, the 74m long, 3,800 gt twin-screw ferry “Grand Manan V”, was built in the context of a joint venture with Conoship Interna-tional and Shipyard Niestern Sanders for the transport ministry of the Cana-dian province New Brunswick. The multipurpose research ship “Zirfaea” for the Dutch transport ministry, also

built in cooperation with Conoship International, followed in 1993. This vessel is deployed off the Dutch coast and in the North Sea continental shelf area. In its next stage of development, the yard delivered two ethylene tank-ers for Reliance Industries (Mumbai, India) in cooperation with the German company LGA. “Precisely this new type was a great challenge for us on account of its complexity. But we suc-ceeded,” it is still recalled today not without pride. The cooperation with Conoship was ended on a friendly basis in 2001, as Volharding had meanwhile established its own design department.

Volharding Shipyards

On successful course with wide product range

Shipyard portrait

The “Beluga Resolution” – a newbuilding of Volharding Shipyard

Volharding Foxhol with the ferry newbuilding “Grand Manan V”

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The group has been very success-ful building containerships. It received its first containership order in 1990 from the Bremen-based Bruno Bischoff Reederei. The vessel was delivered as the “Bremer Export” on March 8th 1991. The 3,628 tdw newbuilding was equipped with two hydraulic 30t deck cranes and had a total container capac-ity of 190 TEU, as well as 20 reefer plugs for refrigerated containers.

The design of the “Bremer Bischoff” was the basis for a long series of con-tainerships that were constantly enlarged and optimised. Volharding built an impressive 35 units of the 4,200 tdw type, for example, which was developed along with the Dutch ship-ping line Wagenborg and built from 1993. These were followed by a series of 8,700 tdw vessels that was just as well received by shipping lines.

At this time when it was achiev-ing good capacity utilisation, Volhard-ing acquired the yard Pattje including its excellent fitting-out facility in Eem-shaven in 1998. The new Volharding/Pattje team developed, for example, a special 3,200 tdw vessel type, which was optimised for operation on the Baltic, Saima Canal and South Finnish lakes and built in series as the “Pattje Saimax”. The hulls were delivered from Romania, by Daewoo Mangalia Heavy Industries (DMHI), with fitting out being performed in Eemshaven. This project marked the beginning of a part-nership that functioned smoothly and was continued for later newbuildings.

The production of entire newbuildings was, incidentally, also subcontracted out to Romania at times when there were more than enough orders to cope with “at home”.

In 2001, Volharding acquired Frisian Shipyard, engaging in both newbuild-ing and repair business. A new Ro-Ro vessel type was developed for this yard, again in cooperation with the shipping line Wagenborg, which had become one of the company’s most important customers. The hulls for this type were also supplied from Romania, with fit-ting out being performed in Harlin-gen. Volharding also developed a 750 TEU containership, of which a total of eleven units were delivered to German and Dutch lines up to 2005. The capac-ity of this type has been meanwhile been increased to 900 TEU, with the Ukraine shipyard Okean delivering the hulls for subsequent fitting out in Har-lingen. The 900 TEU vessels are built for Beluga-Reederei in Bremen and JP Ship-ping in Harlingen.

A series of ten 900 TEU vessels is cur-rently under construction at the ship-yard Deniz in Izmir in Turkey. In 2004 Volharding founded a joint venture with this yard, which at that time started building tanker hulls. As it proved impossible to have further hulls delivered from Romania, the fitting-out facility in Eemshaven was closed and the fitting-out pontoon used there transferred to Turkey.

Eager to emphasise its increasing international orientation, Volharding

notes that in addition to its European activities it builds multipurpose carri-ers at Chinese and Vietnamese yards in cooperation with German shipping lines. Volharding has already cooper-ated effectively with the Chinese ship-yards for quite some time, mostly on behalf of German customers.

Two shipyard locations

Outside its administrative centre in Westerbroek and following the closure of the fitting-out berth in Eemshaven, Volharding Group is active at two locations in the Netherlands: Foxhol and Harlingen. There the group has a total of 230 employees building about twelve to 20 ships annually, with sales averaging €200m.

Foxhol is the oldest site. This was where the barge “tjalk” already men-tioned was built, and the group as it is active today developed from Foxhol, where vessels of all types used to be produced, although their size remained restricted on account of the water con-ditions. The maximum beam was thus 16m. “Our newbuildings have therefore always been very lean ships,” it is stated. Mainly subassemblies and deckhouses, also for other yards, are now produced in Foxhol, where there is a shipbuilding hall with advanced equipment and all other necessary facilities.

The Harlingen location has been developed into the group’s newbuild-ing centre, the focus of which is a fully covered drydock and fitting-out quay.

The yard in Harlingen, well busy with newbuildings and repair vessels

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The dock has a length of 145m and a width of 30m with a water depth of 10m. The modern construction hall cov-ering the dock is 150m long and 50m wide and equipped with two mobile overhead cranes capable of together transporting loads of up to 200t. The spacious hall also accommodates the rooms for the works management and the project teams, as well as the facil-ities of the subcontractors, which also have separate access from the cen-tral parking place. The capacity of the 180m long fitting-out pier has been nearly doubled with the installation of an additional floating pier. The ships being fitted out are easily accessible independent of the tide.

The repair area in Harlingen was acquired at the beginning of this year by Shipdock BV, which has its head-quarters in Amsterdam.

Wide construction programme

Volharding convincingly claims that it is not a one-sided shipbuilder, but has great experience in the construc-tion of many types of vessel and their fitting out, also with different propul-sion plants. It also emphasises that it has wide experience working with part-ner companies in the Netherlands and other countries. These are shipyards as well as customers and suppliers, with which Volharding aims to cooperate closely at the earliest possible phase in project development. This approach benefits both sides by avoiding misun-

derstandings, which mostly result in delays and frequently higher costs. Vol-harding’s wide experience is shown by the fact that it has built containerships and multipurpose vessels, tankers for various types of cargo, Ro-Ro and Sto-Ro carriers and special-purpose ships meeting the highest technical stand-ards for the particular requirements.

The company expanded its prod-uct range only recently with two new interesting vessel types. One is an ice-strengthened container feeder ship with 917 TEU capacity, of which initially a series is being built at Deniz Ship-yard in Izmir. The design is based on a former 750 TEU type. The other type is a 4,000 tdw chemicals tanker capable of transporting six different types of cargo simultaneously in twelve cargo tanks. Four units of this type have been ordered by a Norwegian shipping line. These newbuildings are built entirely in Harlingen.

The construction of multipurpose heavy-lift ships for Beluga-Shipping, the design of which was formulated with the customer, has also attracted great interest. The vessels with a maximum crane capacity of 2 x 250t are among the heavyweights in this segment and thus particularly suitable for transport-ing project cargoes. After the “Beluga Revolution” as type ship, three more of these 10,536 tdw vessels entered serv-ice under German flag during 2005, fol-lowed by two units lengthened from 134.6m to 159.7m. The hulls of these vessels were also built at the Daewoo Mangalia yard in Romania and taken to the Netherlands for fitting out.

The propulsion concept of these ships, which have already been well received by the market, is based on a medium-speed four-stroke diesel engine of the type Caterpillar MaK 8M43, which is suitable for heavy oil operation and develops 7,200 kW at 500 1/min to provide a ship speed of 18 knots. The output has meanwhile been increased up to 8,000 kW. Volharding has for a long time enjoyed a good relationship with Caterpillar via the Dutch repre-sentative MaK Nederland/Bolier. Many of the newbuildings built at the Vol-harding yards incorporate the success-ful MaK engines. The company consid-ers that its effective cooperation with Caterpillar is further strengthened by the support the latter also offers with financing. This good relationship can certainly be expanded, accord-ing to Volharding, and Caterpillar will also certainly continue to contribute to this.

Newbuildings at the Yard in Harlingen

Volharding main office in Westerbroek

Shipyard portrait

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Personal dedication as the key to success

Klingenberg shipping line celebrating double anniversary Even the address is unusual: who

would ever think you would find the headquarters of a well-posi-

tioned medium-sized shipping line that has had its vessels built in China for many years far from the water, in Eller-bek near Hamburg, in the quiet street Achter de Höf, in just as tranquil and respectable looking building? This is indeed the address of Reederei Klingen-berg – down-to-earth, no-frills, success-ful – personified by its owner Armin Klin-genberg, who can be proud of a double anniversary this year: the centenary of the shipbrokers Albert Hauschild, which Armin Klingenberg has owned for a long time and from which the shipping line Klingenberg developed, as well as Armin Klingenberg’s own half-century at Albert Hauschild.

The shipbroker Albert Hauschild regis-tered his company at Hamburg Munic-ipal Court on July 18th 1906. It served mainly coastal motor ships carrying fodder and grain to the German North Sea and Baltic ports and Denmark. The company Albert Hauschild continued to be active even during the second world war, in any case as far as this was per-mitted by the circumstances.

After the second world war, there was initially scarcely any more business for shipbrokers in war-torn Hamburg. The British as occupying power imposed a rigid regime, insisting on their approval of every activity. There were also hardly any ships available. The large vessels had been sunk or handed over, while the smaller ones, if not also handed

over, except for a few very old vessels that were allowed to remain with their owners, were regarded as surrendered but could continue to be operated ini-tially as „X ships“ by their owners according to the provisions of the occu-pying power. Up to July 7th 1945, there was a general prohibition of naviga-tion, which was then relaxed in small steps. On that day, which can thus be regarded as turning point, for the first time a licence was issued for a single voyage of two 169 grt large vessels for a shipment of oats from Kappeln/Schlei to Hamburg. Initially, only serv-ices to the west German coast between Emden and Lübeck were permitted. Every single voyage had to be approved. But before the first could be approved, an Allied licence for the printing of the licence forms had to be issued.

Conditions were thus certainly very unfavourable for resuming busi-ness and re-establishing old con-tacts and making new ones. Yet with great effort companies recovered, and Albert Hauschild was also soon able to do good business again. The Korean War enormously stimulated shipping, including coastal shipping, giving lines and owners an unprecedented boom in freight rates. Horrific rates were paid between about 1952 and 1957 because with the fear of another major war on the horizon everyone wanted to stock up with goods.

It was at this time that Armin Klin-genberg, born in 1939, entered the ship-ping world. He still recalls his start very exactly. On January 25th 1956, he had been informed by the labour exchange that the shipbrokers Albert Hauschild was looking for a trainee, and on Feb-ruary 3rd the nearly 17-year-old Armin, accompanied by his mother, took the tram line 1 to the Fischmarkt in Ham-burg-Altona, near which the company had its offices, to apply for the train-ing position. He has not forgotten the „beastly icy east wind“ on that day that made covering even short distances on foot a nightmare. Nevertheless, Armin Klingenberg was taken on by the firm. The sum of DM55 was agreed as monthly remuneration for the first year of training. The new trainee started on April 1st 1956 and on his very first day became acquainted with the practical side of shipbroking. Shortly after arriv-ing at the company, he was told: „Come on, we have to go to clear a customer.“ Armin Klingenberg then boarded a ship for the first time. The vessel was the motor sailer „Amandus“, which had loaded 150t of coal waste from Odense. This was a product that was extensively used for road construction in Hamburg and elsewhere at that time.

In the fifties: coster with loading – left with wood, right with diverse heavy sections

The coaster vessel „Ines“ was the shipping line‘s first vessel, built in 1969 in The Netherlands

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And so the youngster gradually became acquainted with the compa-ny‘s business – „learning by doing“, as we would say today. Armin Klingen-berg had to do everything that had to be done in the small firm, such as draw-ing up clearing and provisions lists, and he had to go everywhere, for example to the customs and the port authority – naturally on foot! If, for instance, a ship berthed on the Rethe had to be cleared, that meant a walk of two and a half hours from Altona through the Elbe tunnel and, of course, trudging for the same time back, naturally in all kinds of weather. That not only toughened the spirit of the young Armin but also gave the budding shipbroker a wealth of experience from which he admits he still benefits today. At that time, the company Hauschild continued to focus on grain and feed cargoes.

Armin Klingenberg completed his training in 1959. He must have really satisfied his superior, who praised his performance and capabilities: „Klingen-berg always performed well during his training; as far as can now be determined, Klingenberg has the capa-bility to be a shipbroker for coasters.“

Klingenberg then very quickly succeeded in acquiring his own regular clientele by providing cus-tomers with a highly per-sonal service, as he recalls. When the coasters came to him as shipbroker, they were first served fresh rolls and coffee and even given the mass tabloid „Bild“ to glance at before getting down to business. „That was what it was like at

that time, and it is in various respects a shame that so much has been lost of these very personal contacts.“ This personal approach proved so success-ful that quite soon, in 1964, Klingen-berg became a partner in the com-pany Albert Hauschild, which gradually expanded its business over the North Sea and Baltic: Seville, Casablanca or Archangelsk then became destinations. This met with a lack of understanding in the traditional world of coaster ship-ping. Voyages involving seven or more days at sea were undertaken. „But you just don‘t do that,“ it was frequently murmured. But Armin Klingenberg did do it, and was successful, which was probably also a reason why he was transferred further shares in the com-pany.

Time for a rethink

A turning point not only for German coaster shipping but also for Armin Klin-genberg‘s strategy was prompted by

the scrappings required by the federal government in 1967-68. To promote fleet renewal, bonuses were paid for older and smaller ships handed over for breaking up. But precisely those were the vessels that had been brokered by Hauschild, and with their withdrawal a substantial part of this business was lost. A rethink was required, and in this situation it meant that the company had to acquire its own tonnage. So in 1969 Hauschild ordered its first newbuilding, the 1,150 tdw „Ines“, which could also carry 52 TEU, in the Netherlands. Fur-ther newbuildings of up to 2,000 tdw from Dutch yards followed. Klingenberg pursued a basically sound newbuilding strategy that has been retained up to the present day. He explains: „I didn‘t, of course, have any money from the scrap-pings as start-up capital. I financed eve-rything, up to today, with the money I earned with my company.“ The ships were deployed mainly for transporting timber between Scandinavia as well as the White Sea and England.

However, Klingenberg definitely also had con-fidence in German ship-building, which he duly demonstrated with an initial order placed with Sietas Shipyard in 1974. This was for the 1,500 tdw MS „Thies“, which could load up to 2,500 cbm of packaged timber. As the agreed construction sum of DM4.4m did not quite correspond to Klingen-berg‘s available means, the head of Sietas at that time, Johann Jakob, naturally helped out with a contri-bution, which was later repaid. The parties came

Shipping line profile

MV “Thies” (1) was the first ship of the shipping company build in Germany

MV “Thies” (2), able to carry 580 TEU

MV “Nadja” with a container capacity of 672 TEU

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to an understanding on a partnership basis.

This human aspect was certainly sig-nificant and is also reflected in the fact that Armin Klingenberg was very famil-iar with life on board ships, probably more than almost any other owner – and this is of more than merely anec-dotal importance. He was continually going along on board, not just to gain experience but as a real representative of his company. That enabled him to make contacts and acquire knowledge from which he still benefits today. There is nothing you can really tell him about his business. Anyone who knows him also knows that he particularly enjoys assuming the very important job of cook for the entire crew. „Everyone always ate their fill, with three hot meals a day, and everyone found the food tasted good,“ he relates about his own achieve-ments in this area. However, he keeps quiet about whether produce from his chicken farm „Bielefelder Kennhüh-ner“, which he also looked after with loving care, landed in the pot or the pan on these occasions. But, as Klingenberg recalls a little wistfully, „at that time, the ships stayed longer in port, which offered much more opportunity to look after the crews. In those years, we even had our own football team.“

Entry into container shipping

In the second half of the 1970s, German coaster agents also began to enter the container shipping sector. An increasing number of container feeder ships and also larger units of up to 8,000 tdw were ordered. Klingenberg, mean-while sole owner of Albert Hauschild, followed this trend with his own keen instinct for market developments and in 1986 ordered his first containership from the yard Nobiskrug. This became the „Thies“ (2), which with a capacity of 7,500 tdw could carry 580 TEU.

Towards the end of the 1980s, the shipping sector had overcome a low in freight rates and there were clear signs of a container boom. Armin Klingen-berg recognised this as a great oppor-tunity. It lay in his energetic nature, rejecting all compromise, tackling what had to be done, to rise to this challenge. He was one of the first German ship-owners to place newbuildings in China in 1991 after the gradual opening of the Chinese market. „It‘s still almost incredible how difficult that was at that time. Neither the Chinese partners nor I myself had any experience with financing or the many other things that were all somehow still in a state of flux then. But both sides wanted to see it through, and things worked out somehow. „Just how, you might ask me today? Everything was virgin territory, but we succeeded. And so we became a pioneer for other German shipping lines. The result is clearly evident in the number of newbuilding orders placed after us.“ Klingenberg Bereederungs-

und Befrachtungs OHG was then founded on January 1st 1995.

First-rate equipment is vital

Armin Klingenberg is very familiar with the Chinese shipbuilding industry. He has already had ten vessels built in China and has another four still under construction. He did not want to dis-close any further plans at the time of the anniversary.

Right from the beginning, Klingen-berg put great priority on having mostly German equipment installed in all his ship newbuildings in China. He notes that „today that’s already routine. It‘s a really first-rate investment, and the resulting reliability pays off in the long run“. He cites as only one example MaK engines from Kiel, on which he has relied for a long time. The first vessel he had equipped with these was the „Ville de Mijo“, delivered in 1993 by MaWei Ship-yard in Fuzhou (China) and meanwhile sold to another owner. This 5,684 gt/599 TEU containership with its own cargo-handling gear was specially strength-ened for handling heavy cargo. The ves-sel‘s propulsion plant was a MaK engine of type 9 M 453 with an output of 3,300 kW at 600/min, providing a speed of 14.5 knots. As shipowner, Klingenberg was very satisfied with this choice, and he equipped all his further newbuildings with MaK engines for the main propul-sion plant. Four of these are still in serv-ice, and four more have been ordered in China. They all have MaK M 43 engines for the main propulsion system.

MV “Ilona”, built in Wuhan, China, providing a container capacity of 847 TEU at a deadweight of 11 000 t

MV “Ville de Mijo” was the first ship of shipping company Klingenberg, driven by a MaK engine

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The container turns fifty, and …

its success story is far from over

People have never set so much store by a thing made to store things,“ quipped a German

business magazine with reference to the container in the mid-1960s. The big standardised boxes from the USA came over the Atlantic in 1966. Before this, however, they had already undergone refinement for over ten years in inner-Ameri-can transport, initiated by Malcolm McLean (1913-2001), a man who became a legend in his own life-time. This development was cer-tainly also followed from the other side of the Atlantic. Yet the Europe-ans became very agitated when it became clear that they would also be confronted by these boxes. They were certainly not happy about this prospect and in fact deeply scep-tical, although they gladly wel-comed so many other things “from

America”. Yet everyone was aware that something was „in the air“, that with the advent of the boxes something unusual was bound to occur, although no one knew what might happen, what kind of devel-opment could be expected and where it would all end. It was as on the eve of a revolution, and, as we all know, it became one.

The container very rapidly trans-formed not only the entire trans-port world with all its hitherto separate areas but also the whole global economy. Without the con-tainer, the much praised – or also detested – process of globalisation as we have experienced in the past

Methods had to change in the fast-growing sea transport sector.

In the spotlight

In May 1966, the Sea-Land contain-ership „Fairland“ unloaded the first containers carried overseas in Rot-terdam and Bremerhaven.

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two or three decades could not have occurred, or in any case not at the pace it did. The success of this revolution and in particular the ongoing development has been very much due to the ship-building industry, as it was responsi-ble for designing the boxes linking the continents, without which the changes in the transport world have been incon-ceivable. German shipyards played a significant part in this process.

First of all, it is probably true to say that the containership has undergone a more rapid and volatile develop-ment than any other type of vessel in the long history of global shipbuilding. It began after some more or less hesi-tant preliminaries with the enormous increase in ship sizes between the second half of the 1960s and the begin-ning of the 1970s. The vessels ordered in 1967 for the North Atlantic service became known as the first generation with 14,000 grt and 750 TEU capacity. In 1969, orders were placed for ships of the second generation for the Aus-tral service with 27,000 grt and 1,500 TEU, followed only a year later by ves-sels of the third generation with 55,000 grt and 3,000 TEU for Far East services. Ship sizes and capacities thus quadru-pled within the space of four years.

Shipbuilders were confronted with the special problem that the container-ship was an entirely new type of vessel and that the enormous size increases had to be mastered in the individual generations without any time remain-ing to gain experience with the pre-vious ones. Problems concerning, for instance, spaces between containers, tolerances or effective lashing equip-ment had to be solved largely theo-retically. However, shipbuilders coped very quickly and admirably with all these challenges. That applied particu-larly, but not only, for the German ship-building industry, first and foremost for Blohm + Voss, Bremer Vulkan, which later met such a miserable end, and Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) or their predecessor companies.

In the mid-1970s, it was then gener-ally accepted that in the foreseeable future the sector would be unlikely to see either a fourth containership gen-eration or one with nuclear propul-sion, or any submarine containership or container airship for that matter – all projects that were more or less seri-ously discussed at that time. The tech-nical development seemed to have come to a halt. Standardised rectan-gular boxes had to be transported, and

that was that. What other major steps would be necessary? The limit to fur-ther increases in ship sizes was set by the Panama Canal, through which 3,000 TEU vessels could just pass. „The limits to reasonable growth have become clear after the great strides made in the past ten years,“ it was stated for exam-ple in 1977.

Further progress after apparent standstill

Following the enormous growth in the size of containerships up to the early 1970s as noted, for a long time there seemed to be little debate outside narrow expert circles concerning the further development of the container-ship, although it should be pointed out that there was never really any techni-cal standstill at any time, even if this appeared to be superficially the case. Progress made during the next ten to 15 years involved mainly constant design optimisation and became par-ticularly evident with the ever increas-

With the increasing size of container-ships for overseas transport, seaborne distribution from major ports is handled by ever larger feeder vessels.

24

ing container capacities with no change in ship dimensions.

Further focal areas involved achiev-ing more safety and time savings, the latter for instance via the simplification of container lashing procedures with lashing bridges for containerships with capacities of 2,500 TEU upwards. The foldable lashing frame with the hatch-cover was another idea developed with support from Germanischer Lloyd.

A crucial year was 1988 with the entry into service of the first con-tainerships that were wider than the locks of the Panama Canal and thus no longer able to use that key water-way. This was the beginning of the era of the so-called Post-Panamax carri-ers. These vessels were built by HDW in Kiel and Bremer Vulkan for American President Lines (APL). They could carry 4,340 TEU. In that watershed year of 1988, the experts were also surprised by the first containerships that with greatly reduced wing structure width could stow eleven instead of the hith-erto ten containers next to one another in the hold and yet because of their unchanged beam could still transit the Panama Canal. The innovator was the Danish shipping line Maersk, which had these vessels (M class) built at its own yard in Odense. Maersk, which via inter-nal growth and mergers became the world‘s largest container line, greatly contributed to the technical progress in this sector.

While ship sizes had in the meantime developed in a rather continuous way without any spectacular highlights, there were very different develop-ments as regards speed, which have always been influenced by fuel price levels. Thus, the vessels of the second generation deployed in the Austral service were faster than those serv-ing on the North Atlantic, and the first Far East vessels with their 26/27 knots were even faster. Speed was, of course, a definite advantage, especially on long routes. The US shipping line Seatrain, which no longer exists today, deployed

vessels on the North Atlantic that with gas turbine propulsion achieved 28 knots with a daily fuel consumption of over 300t. The record was finally achieved by Sea-Land, also based in the USA and incidentally one of the pio-neers in this business, which offered a speed of 33 knots with its eight 1,096 TEU containerships of the type SL-7 built in Germany and the Netherlands that entered service from 1973. These vessels with their two geared steam turbines providing a propulsion output of 120,000 hp were the fastest cargo ships ever built. Their daily fuel con-sumption was 600t at top speed. Cer-tainly an expensive proposition.

Then came the 1973 oil price shock, when bunker costs skyrocketed. Ship-ping lines had to „apply the brakes“. The normal speed for newbuildings declined to well under twenty knots. The fast vessels commissioned in pre-vious years reduced their propulsion performance, and Sea-Land, which because of the high oil prices had run „straight on to the rocks“, sold its ships for certainly good prices to the US Navy. Although speed has remained a talking point, it was only from the mid-1990s that the large newbuildings designed for Europe-Far East or Pacific services again reached 24-25 knots or even more in some cases. However, the average speed of all containerships remained constant at about 19-20 knots.

It is worth mentioning the „open top“ containership without hatchcov-ers as an independent development, in addition to the CONRO carriers (carry-ing both containers and Ro-Ro cargo) commissioned in those years. The first large open top vessel was the 48,805 gt „Nedlloyd Asia“ with 3,568 TEU capac-ity. This no longer had a closed deck except for the first three forward con-

tainer rows. The vessel without hatch-covers is fitted with continuous cell guides from the ship‘s bottom making it possible to stow the containers in 13 layers on top of one another.

This type has indisputable advan-tages but also drawbacks from the technical point of view. It is certainly an advantage that with the loading and unloading of the containers it makes unnecessary time-consuming lashing work as well as uncovering and cover-ing of the hatches. On the other hand, more time is required for transhipping most containers, as each box has to be raised right over the high cell guides. The restricted tolerances of the con-tainers in the guide rails do not permit any significant incline of the ship in port. Moreover, a much higher pump output is required to transfer over board the increasing water volume from rain or seaway resulting from the open design. Another important point is that because of their tonnage the vessels also have to pay higher demur-rage charges in ports. Only a few ships of this type have so far been put in service, at least for overseas transport. The situation seems to be different for feeder services. Thus, the Hamburg-based Sietas Shipyard has developed an open-top type of which more than fifty units have meanwhile been com-missioned.

But to return to 1992. The particularly noteworthy newbuildings at that time included the „Hannover Express“ series, ordered by Hapag-Lloyd from Samsung Shipyard in South Korea. These 58,783 gt vessels had a length of 281.60m and were thus probably the longest containerships of their day. Their con-tainer capacity reached 4,407 TEU and thus roughly the Panamax optimum. However, fully loaded they had to take on considerable amounts of water bal-last of 10,000-15,000t in order to be able to float upright. These volumes,

As containerships become ever larger, joint services are developing in many trades.

Refrigerated containerships have a considerable influence on conventional

reefer shipping.

In the spotlight

25

which frequently corresponded to over 15% of deadweight, were absolutely vital to achieve the necessary stabil-ity, but were otherwise useless „cargo“. This inconvenience could generally be avoided by building wider ships, although these could no longer pass through the Panama Canal. And the industry was still rather reluctant about deciding on these at that time. Germa-nischer Lloyd later developed a method for reducing the ballast water volume, making it possi-ble to carry up to 200 TEU more on board.

Fast growth in ship capacities

Following the commission-ing of the first containerships that were too large to pass the Panama Canal, the Post-Panamax vessels as we have already mentioned, after some initial hesitation the dam was quickly broken. Although as late as 1992 the trade journal „Deutsche Verkehrs-Zeitung“ commented rather sceptically that „The 6,000 TEU ship is no Utopia“, a first feasibility study for the construction of 8,000 TEU vessels was drawn up in the same year. It initially met a very cool reception, but only a little later, in 2003, the break-through for this size class, today regarded as standard in the East-West trades, was achieved. Over 80 newbuildings of this size were on the orderbooks of South Korean shipyards at the end of 2003. At the same time, a series of 9,500 TEU vessels had been ordered. And of the 1,124 containerships with a total capacity of 4.1m TEU ordered globally during 2005, 2.2m TEU (about 55%) was accounted for by vessels with a capacity of 5,000 TEU upwards. The 13,000 TEU vessel is already now being discussed. A first series is being built at Odense Shipyard, which belongs to Maersk Group. However, this yard is always very discreet when it comes to announcing technical details. It is cer-tain that the technical aspects of the 13,000 TEU giant have meanwhile been settled. Germanischer Lloyd has pre-sented a relevant design with the South

Korean Hyundai shipyard. In view of the previous development, it will prob-ably be only a matter of time before the first orders for it are placed and outside Europe. It remains to be seen

whether there will then be a Malac-camax ship with 18,000 TEU capac-ity, just able to pass through the Strait of Malacca. The experts are already discussing the feasibility of such a vessel.

The limits to growth for the present mega-carriers are set, as is continually emphasised by shipbuilders, less by the design of the ships themselves – „technically everything is doable“ – but rather by external factors. These are first and foremost the water depths in port entrances and in the ports them-selves, the suprastructure in the form of the transhipment facilities, the logis-tics requirements, particularly with

respect to the organisation of feeder services, and the increasing operat-ing and also environmental risks in the event that such huge vessels ever become incapable of manoeuvring or

suffer an accident. The maximum available

size of the propulsion plants also leads to certain problems. There are already some designs assuming a twin-engine pro-pulsion system. The GL/Hyundai project also envisages such a plant, putting the priority on the safety aspect. However, the shipping lines still seem to be sceptical about this concept, as they are unwilling to accept the additional outlay for such solu-tions. The single-engine ship, and the single-engine mega ship, will thus in all probabil-ity remain the norm, at least for the time being. However, this requires extremely relia-ble engines with outputs of up to 100,000 kW or over. So far engine makers have managed to meet the requirements, and there should be little doubt that they will also offer the satisfac-tory solutions in future.

In conclusion, it is fair to say that no sector is as closely con-nected with the deregulation and globalisation of the econ-omy as container shipping. Since its beginnings in the mid-1960s, it has had a crucial impact on world trade. Container ship-ping has made a very signifi-cant contribution to the devel-opment of the global economy, and it is sometimes even com-

pared to microchips, as recently noted by the former Germanischer Lloyd executive board member Dr. Hanns Payer.

The efficiency and reliability of liner shipping have improved by leaps and bounds with the growth in ship sizes and capacities. It may be assumed that further progress will be made with the design of containerships in future and that engineers will be able to meet the market demand for even larger units. Containerships have always been devel-oped to the limit of what is regarded as technically possible. Nothing indi-cates that anything will change in this respect.

There have so far been no limits to the growth in the size of containerships.

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The “magic triangle” of high per-formance, low fuel consump-tion and minimal emissions

often used to describe the optimal marine engine is being transformed. Thanks to Caterpillar Common Rail (CCR), factors once regarded as mutu-ally exclusive can now be individu-ally harmonised. Caterpillar Common Rail represents a well-proven element of Caterpillar’s ACERTTM technology, based on over 80 years of experience in marine propulsion system technol-ogy, unique expertise and long-stand-ing experience with electronic engine control systems.

Sound basis

Since their introduction in 1992, MaK long-stroke marine engines of the M 20 C, M 25, M 32 C and M 43 C series have been acclaimed world-wide for their great reliability and long component life as well as high performance and low fuel consump-tion. The combustion concept of these engines is based on a high stroke/bore ratio, intensive injection with a shaped injection curve and optimised valve timing. This ensures smooth running, even for heavy fuel oil (HFO) opera-tion, as well as low NOx and soot in the exhaust gas. Today’s MaK engines comply with the current limit regula-tions for marine engines (IMO I, EPA Tier I) without additional after-treat-ment. However, as even stricter regula-tions are to be expected in the future, shipping lines are already calling for a clear strategy for further reducing the harmful exhaust gas components.

Comprehensive research

Given the constantly increasing cus-tomer expectations, Caterpillar is con-vinced that electronically control-led engines will steadily gain ground and become standard and has thus developed ACERT technology for Cat engines. This utilises various modules for controlling the combustion proc-ess with the highest precision, reduc-ing emissions and noise as well as increasing performance and making

it possible to offer systems tailored to the particular application. The tech-nology is being constantly refined and will clearly be able to meet future emission guidelines. Caterpillar has the know-how, resources and techno-logical capabilities (with internal pro-duction of fuel systems and design of electronic controls) to achieve this objective.

The MaK approach

After thousands of its high-speed engines had shown the advan-tages of ACERT, Caterpillar started developing elements of this tech-nology for the MaK medium-speed engines. As Dr. Frank Starke, Engineer-ing Manager, Medium-Speed, Cater-pillar Large Power Systems Division, Lafayette, USA, explains: “The objec-tive was clearly defined: exceed cus-tomer expectations by maximising product value. The strategy therefore had to correspond with the reputa-tion of the MaK brand providing top reliability in heavy oil operation, best-in-class fuel efficiency and minimum

engine emissions!” Caterpillar opted for a two-phase approach to achieve the most effective solutions with little additional outlay, the first step involv-ing Flexible Camshaft Technology (FCT) for flexible camshaft control and the second step the Caterpillar Common Rail Fuel system (CCR).

Flexible Camshaft Technology (FCT)

Because it is based on the concept of ACERT system integration, Flex-ible Camshaft Technology achieves a synergy between flexible fuel sys-tems and highly sophisticated super-charging systems, as well as fully uti-lising the current MaK engine design parameters. While retaining high fuel injection pressure over a wide operat-ing area, fuel injection timing is load-controlled. Increased injection pres-sure at partial load leads to finer fuel atomisation and reduced smoke emis-sions. At partial load, the control times of the inlet valve are also changed to increase the effective compression and thereby achieve a more complete combustion.

Caterpillar Common Rail system for medium-speed MaK marine engines

A great step forward

New Technology

MaK 6 M 32 C with CCR engine

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FCT is a robust solution based on a mechanical lever shaft that automat-ically influences both injection timing and inlet valve processes. The engine load required for activating the lever can be flexibly adjusted according to the operator’s requirements. In any case, visible smoke is eliminated at partial load and performance (load response behaviour) is enhanced, while the IMO I standards are complied with at all load points. Invisible smoke is a clear advantage for all ships and boats. A low smoke level for vessels operating is increasingly required by the regulatory authorities in emission-sensitive areas. About 20 MaK engines equipped with FCT in the M 32 C and M 43 C series have been sold for cruise ships and ferries to date.

Caterpillar Common Rail (CCR)

FCT meets current market require-ments. However, further smoke reduc-tion at partial load will be required in future. The mechanical basis of this technology meanwhile offers only limited scope for improvement. “On the other hand, Caterpillar Common Rail clearly points the way to comply-ing with future regulations,” explains Frank Starke. “CCR is also based on the ACERT system and represents a totally flexible fuel system offering sufficient potential for meeting even stricter smoke reduction requirements (about

50% below FCT).” And CCR uses injec-tion maps, a technology for the fine tuning of the injection parameters for every single engine operation point. Starke: “Injection mapping not only guarantees optimal injection pressure with given load but also makes it pos-sible to reduce soot and NOx emis-sions.”

Smoke emissions at low engine load remain well below the visibility limit for particularly emission-sensi-tive areas. Moreover, even when the engine is started there is no visible soot, which is a great advantage, par-ticularly in the cruise business. CCR generally permits ship operation with-out visible soot throughout the oper-ating range. Moreover, fuel consump-tion during operation at normal load can be reduced without having to make compromises on NOx emissions. CCR is suitable for operation with HFO (Heavy Fuel Oil), MDO (Marine Diesel Oil) and DO (Diesel Oil). And, most importantly, the system can be retro-fitted.

CCR – an integrated system

Caterpillar’s comprehensive expe-rience with electronically control-led engines, wide product range and design expertise enable it to adopt a unique system approach. The main components of the Caterpillar Common Rail fuel system – high-pres-

sure pump, rail, injection system and electronic control – were developed under Caterpillar’s design leadership, so that it includes the expertise with electronic controls available in the company as a keynote of CCR techno-logy.

n High-pressure pumps Two high-pressure pumps deliver the required amount of fuel to the rail and ensure the necessary rail pressure in a closed loop. The pumps are based on a proven design, but have been modified for HFO oil operation. As there are only two pumps (for series engines), the number of high-pressure connections and components is reduced while also ensuring adequate redundancy. The suction control ensures high pump efficiency.

n Rail The double-walled rails are pressurized and serve as accumula-tor. One rail segment supplies fuel to several injectors, so that a 9-cylin-der engine for example has three rail segments each supplying three injec-tors, while an eight-cylinder engine has two rail segments each feeding four injectors. This design reduces the number of components and high-pressure connections required. Flow limiters prevent the cylinders from being oversupplied with fuel, a safety valve ensuring pressure relief if there is excessive pressure in the rail. A scav-

Rail segment with three injector andassembled at the engine

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enging circuit makes it possible to keep the entire fuel system (high- and low-pressure system) in a pre-heated condition and ensures reliable HFO operation.

n Injectors Caterpillar opted for a simple, robust, compact approach by using the fuel itself for controlling the injectors, thereby obviating the need for a separate control fluid. The cool-ing of the injection nozzle by means of lube oil is another typical characteristic of HFO operation. For CCR the lube oil circuit has meanwhile been expanded to cool the electrical components within the injector and thus increase service life. The injection process is electronically controlled and permits flexible timing from the beginning

including the capability for multiple injection. The injection profile and the shaping of the injection process were optimised using the combustion mod-elling available with the Caterpillar CAT-3D software, as well as compre-hensive engine testing.

n Electronics The key component of the CCR system is the proprietary elec-tronic ADEM™ control module. The ADEM control system, pioneered by Caterpillar as a trail-blazing innova-tion almost 20 years ago, controls fuel delivery, air supply and other basic engine processes, thereby achieving an optimal balance between perform-ance and emissions. The tailor-made software for MaK engines with CCR is based on Caterpillar's wealth of expe-rience gained with the existing ADEM software and various engine control strategies and also takes into consid-eration the specific requirements of HFO operation with medium-speed engines. The functions of ADEM can be basically subdivided into a core system and a performance system. The core system comprises the actual

control unit, a crankshaft speed pickup, two camshaft speed pickups, two high-pressure sensors, two intake throttles and the injectors. The per-formance system ensures an optimal setting of the engine under all operat-ing conditions using information such as exhaust gas temperature, charge air pressure, ambient conditions and lube oil temperature.

Safety and reliability – a matter of course

The focus was on safety and relia-bility during the entire development process. Ulrich Hopmann, Engineering Supervisor CCR, Caterpillar Motoren GmbH & Co. KG (Kiel, Germany), points out in this connection that “CCR offers a state-of-the-art design by ensuring engine operation with proven tech-nology (ADEM control unit), specific innovations (injectors) and redundant components (high-pressure pumps, double-walled lines and rails, speed pickups, pressure sensors).” A safety gear between pumps and engine, a pressure relief valve and flow limit-ers between rail and injectors further enhance the operating reliability of the CCR system.

CCR – the ultimate solution

Dr. Udo Schlemmer-Kelling, Manager Research, Caterpillar Motoren GmbH & Co. KG (Kiel, Germany), describes the current CCR technology for medium-speed engines as the result of a long successful period of basic research and comprehensive pre-field testing. “A common rail solution for MaK engines was tested as early as 1988, and so-called unit pumps with electronically controlled solenoid valves were devel-oped in 1995,” recalls Schlemmer-Kel-ling. The first MaK common rail concept was formulated at the dawn of the new millennium and finally led to the offi-cial launch of CCR at SMM 2006.

Dr. Frank Starke: “Another impor-tant lesson that we have meanwhile learned is the retrofit aspect, which makes it possible to install the entire system in any existing MaK M 32 C engine already in operation.“

Thanks to the closed loop, the elec-tronically controlled injection system provides long-term stable operation and emission values compared with mechanical solutions. Moreover, the injection mapping has the poten-tial to respond to the wear and tear of an older engine by using modified control parameters, which are imple-mented during regular engine main-tenance. “CCR combined with FCT-controlled valve activation offers an almost unlimited degree of freedom for engine optimisation and control,“ concludes Frank Starke.

A Caterpillar Common Rail

CCR is the result of extensive research into system stability and service life with HFO operation and a prudent assessment of the experience gained in the field with competing solutions. It combines innovative tech-nology with a level of reliability that is unprecedented for the sector. The MaK 6 M 32 CCR marine engine presented at SMM 2006 opens up a new chapter in the long Cat and MaK success story. And we are only at the beginning of an exciting development: starting with MaK M 32 series, CCR will be pro-vided in future for the entire range of medium-speed MaK engines, with the M 20 C, M 25, M 32 C and M 43 C.

Initial customer responses to the official launch of CCR have been very encouraging. According to Jaime Tetrault, Manager Europe Africa Middle East Marine, Caterpillar Marine Power Systems, Hamburg, Germany, CCR technology is now also being considered for cruise ships operat-ing in emission-sensitive areas and cargo vessels with gensets running continuously during loading and unloading routines in port: “Cater-pillar Marine Power Systems is con-fident of being able to conclude fur-ther contracts for MaK engines based on CCR.”

High performance, low fuel con-sumption and minimised emissions are thus no longer mutually exclusive parameters. With Caterpillar Common Rail, MaK marine engines have cer-tainly taken a great step forward!

New Technology

Injector

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“Delta St. Petersburg” from Nikolaev The large shipyards in Ukraine are gradually making headway in the market, often with foreign support. Their newbuildings are of good quality, as is gener-ally confirmed. An example is the container feeder ship “Delta St. Petersburg”, recently delivered by VAT Sudnobudivnyi Zavod “Okean” (Nikolaev) to Beluga Shipping GmbH (Bremen). The 8,970 gt newbuild-ing with a length of 154.85m, beam of 21.50m and draught of 6.90m can carry 900 TEU. The main pro-pulsion system comprises a MaK engine of type 8 M 43 C, developing 8,000 kW for a speed of 18.7 knots.

MS “Stadt Heilbronn” optimised for the Neckar Gerd-Jürgen Britsch, managing director of the success-ful shipping line Schwaben GmbH since 1982, is jus-tifiably proud of the latest addition to his company’s fleet, particularly because the vessel was the result of exemplary European cooperation: “Planned in Ger-many, built in Poland and completed in the Nether-lands.” And the MS “Stadt Heilbronn” is not only a fine ship; the 2,150 tdw vessel with a length of 105.00m and beam of 11.44m is also the longest newbuilding on the Neckar and optimised for conditions on this river. The double-hulled ship incorporates a Caterpil-lar type 3512B engine with an output of 1,118 kW.

“MSC Portugal” from J.J. Sietas in Hamburg The “MSC Portugal” is one of the typical large con-tainer feeder ships built by J.J. Sietas in Hamburg for the shipping line Peter Döhle Schiffahrts KG, also based in Hamburg. The newbuilding is fitted with per-manent container cell guides for carrying 868 TEU and equipped with efficient shipboard cargo-handling gear. The 9,990 gt/11,000 tdw vessel has a length of 134.44m, beam of 223.50m and draught of 8.71m and is equipped with a MaK type 9 M 43 C engine, develop-ing 8,400 kW to provide a service speed of 18.5 knots.

Multipurpose “Baloe” The multipurpose work boat “Baloe”, recently deliv-ered by the Dutch Damen Shipyards in Hardinxveld to Sleepvaartbedrijf Herman Sr. BV in Zwijndrecht, also in the Netherlands, is particularly dependent on a robust propulsion plant so that she can reliably perform her various duties. Two Caterpillar 3412DTT engines pro-vide the necessary propulsion for the “Baloe”, which is specially designed for deployment in shallow waters and providing support services in ports. The newbuild-ing’s most striking external feature is the high-capac-ity crane installed on the after deck.

Remarkable Ships

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Remarkable Ships

Mega yacht from Lürssen Werft The construction of large luxurious super yachts has become an increasingly important segment of the German shipbuilding industry in recent years. A top position is taken by Lürssen Werft in Bremen-Veges-ack on the Weser. This shipbuilder has had an excel-lent world reputation for super yachts for decades. One of its latest yachts is the “Oasis”, classified by Lloyd’s Register. This vessel, as is usual in this business, is registered for an unspecified owner in George Town, Cayman Islands. The 58.5m long beauty was built at the yard belonging to Lürssen Group in Bardenfleth, also on the Weser. Her propulsion plant comprises two Caterpillar 3512B engines, each developing 1,454 kW.

“Bornholm Express” from Damen Shipyards The fast ferry “Bornholm Express”, built at the Damen shipyard facility in Singapore, recently entered serv-ice between Bornholm and Simrishamn in southern Sweden as well as Bornholm and the neighbouring island Christiansö. The 26 tdw aluminium monohull ferry of type Damen DFF 4108 has a length of 41m, beam of 8m and draught of 23m and is allowed to carry up to 245 passengers. The propulsion plant com-prises three Caterpillar C32 diesel engines, each devel-oping 1,000 kW and driving via ZF 3050 gears three fixed pitch propellers to provide a speed of 25 knots. The auxiliary engines are also from Caterpillar.

“Maasborg” from Ferus SmitThe 6,000 tdw multipurpose freighter “Maasborg”, built by the shipyard Ferus Smit in Leer as yard no. 363, has been successfully deployed by the Dutch Wagen-borg Group since her delivery to the shipping line Smith B.V. in Capelle a. d. Ijssel at the end of last year. The vessel with a length of 110.78m, width of 14m, depth of 8.13m and draught of 6.09m is powered by a 2,614 kW MaK diesel engine of type 8 M 25, providing a speed of approx. 14 knots. The 4,000 gt newbuild-ing is designed mainly for transporting bulk cargoes as well as consignments of paper and timber but can also carry 226 TEU for a homogenous load of 14t.

“Pelikaan” for the Royal Dutch NavyThe Royal Netherlands Navy recently took delivery of the logistics ship A 804 “Pelikaan”, built by Damen Shipyards Gorinchem as yard no. 551004. The new-building is designed for transporting troops and equip-ment in the Caribbean. The 400 tdw unit at a draught of 3.1m has a length of 65.4m and beam of 13.2m and can carry 63 servicemen and their equipment in addi-tion to the permanent crew of 14. The “Pelikaan” has two holds for dangerous cargo and is fitted with a deck crane with a capacity of 25t with 11m reach, as well as a 295 kW bow thruster. The propulsion system comprises two Caterpillar 3512B engines, each devel-oping 1,491 kW to provide a top speed of 15 knots.

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Why be less than direct: saying something about Hamburg,

describing the city, always involves something akin to a declaration of love. That begins with the statement that Hamburg is without doubt one of the world’s most beautiful large cities. This has been taken to heart just by many natives of Hamburg with very typical

“Hanseatic” reserve, but is also only too readily confirmed by most foreign visi-tors, who are also considered as includ-ing those from the southern German federal states.

The “Free and Hanseatic City of Ham-burg” – a title recalling Hamburg’s membership of the medieval Hanseatic League of trading interests in northern Europe and one of which of not only the government of this city state is proud – offers just about everything its inhabitants and visitors could wish for. It has quiet and lively residential areas, middle-class and also fashionable quar-ters, all mixed together, a wealth of cul-tural attractions, with the “Elbe Phil-harmonic” as forthcoming highlight, as well as many sights that survived the bombs of the second world war and bear witness to Hamburg’s his-torical development. There is plenty of green everywhere, and a large lake, the Binnen- und Aussenalster, in the heart

of the busy city centre – something you hardly see elsewhere. This expanse of water is a delightful sight with all the sailing boats and other craft nearly every day and season. Hamburg, beauti-ful during the day, but also with that typical Hanseatic reserve, always makes a pleasantly colourful picture.

But there is also another Hamburg, which awakes at a late hour. Its night life with its restaurants and pubs, “in” places and wide variety of entertainment is more than a match for that of other big cities. St. Pauli and the Reeperbahn with the Grosse Freiheit are a “must” for late-night revellers and are known not only to seafarers from every continent, as far away as Australia and New Zealand, so what more is there to say?

The real heart of Hamburg, however, particularly in the economic sense but sentimentally too, is its port. The best view of this is to be had from the city’s symbol, the Michel: an impressive pan-orama of the shipyard facilities oppo-site with the giant drydock “Elbe 17” in the centre, Landungsbrücken terminal and old Elbe tunnel to the right and the historic Speicherstadt warehouse area to the left. The new HafenCity district featuring many architecturally inter-esting office and residential buildings is currently being developed on the

periphery of the Speicherstadt towards the water. This area will also include the Elbe Philharmonic concert hall.

In 2005, the Port of Hamburg hand-led over 125m t of cargo and a con-tainer volume exceeding 8m TEU, thereby consolidating its position as the second largest European con-tainer port. Visitors are recommended to take an extensive conducted tour around the port to gain some overview of all the interesting activities going on between the Speicherstadt and the container terminals further down river.

However, maritime Hamburg is not only a bustling port but also shipyards and above all shipping lines, as it is easily the most important location for German shipping lines. By far the largest share of the German merchant fleet, mean-while the third largest in the world, is managed from Hamburg. This maritime metropolis makes the ideal venue for the SMM – Shipbuilding, Machinery & Marine Technology International Trade Fair, held for the 22nd time this year as the leading international fair of the ship-building industry presenting the sector’s innovations to many visitors from Ger-many and other countries. The SMM cer-tainly met their expectations, just as Hamburg itself with its abundance of attractions for everyone.

Seen en Route

Cosmopolitan city and maritime centre on the Elbe Hymn to Hamburg

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