46. Sulzer ten chief engineer’s 

46. Sulzer ten chief engineer’s  logbook / 24grammata, nautical publication

Sulzer marine engines were well engineered and so various trials in the early days of oil engines paid dividends. In 1910 there was an icebreaker tug equipped with a Sulzer diesel at Hamburg. The 4 cylinder two-stroke diesel engine gave an indicated 210bhp and 9.75knots, had a 1/3rd smaller engine room than the steam equivalent, and the engine weighed just a quarter of the equivalent steam plant. It did well in all trials, and the simple controls meant the engine could be reversed faster than a steam engine.

In 1911 the British Admiralty purchased a diesel motor launch they had been evaluating for some time. By Sulzer standards this had a very small 4-cylinder two-stroke engine of just 100bhp. The boat was only 60 foot long, and as part of its trials the engine had been successfully run on full power for a period of 24 hours, reaching over 10knots. The vessel was bought for £3000 to be the subject for further experimental work

The MV Monte Penedo, Germany’s first sea-going motor ship (in 1912), was fitted with two Sulzer 4S47 two-stroke crosshead diesel engines. These were replaced in 1949 with new Sulzer 7TS36 diesel engines. In 1912 Sulzer also provided the main diesel propulsion engine and the two diesel generator engines on the new outer Elbe lightship, the ‘Burgermeister Oswald’.

The US Navy also chose Sulzer for some of their submarines, following discussions held in Switzerland in 1915, a design for submarines was developed and tested.These were built by the Lake Torpedo Boat company as the US L Class, and the engines involved the US licensee Busch-Sulzer. Sulzer licensed their engine builds to many companies worldwide, without apparent compromise to the quality of their engines.

In the mid-1920s Sulzer started to advertise their airless Diesel engines, meaning they were using liquid injection rather than injecting the fuel using an air-blast (as used by Rudolph Diesel). They exhibited their 300hp 2-stroke airless engine, suitable for yachts, tugs, barges, etc at the Olympia Shipping Exhibition of 1925.

Sulzer’s marine engine range in 1969 extended from the 3 cylinder version of the A25 auxiliary engine at 550bhp to the 12 cylinder 48,000 bhp 12RND105 engine, 10 metres high, with cylinders over a metre in diameter. More recently these main engines have been replaced by the RTA series of engines, still two stroke.

The RD type marine two-stroke cross-head engine ranged from the 5 cylinder 5RD44, to the 12 cylinder 12RD90. This was developed into the RND engine, with numerous improvements including eliminating mechanically operated exhaust valves, with sizes ranging from 5RND68 (8,250 bhp), to 12RND105 (48,000 bhp).

A new marine range of engines in the later 1960s were the Z and ZV range covering 2,600bhp to 6,600bhp. These were again two-strokes but in 1969 four-stroke version were being planned. They were available either as in-line engines or as 50 degree V-engines. Trunk pistons were used instead of crossheads, and both long and short stroke engines were available.

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vessel log book publishing ID

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