Finnish manufacturer of forestry machines Ponsse receives the 11,111th MTU engine from Rolls-Royce

Finnish manufacturer of forestry machines Ponsse receives the 11,111th MTU engine from Rolls-Royce

• Ponsse has put its trust in MTU engines for more than 15 years
• Stage V engine has now completed intensive field testing

FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, 15-Nov-2017 — /EuropaWire/ — The 11,111th engine delivered to Ponsse by Rolls-Royce is a Series 1000 six-cylinder in-line engine from MTU. This unit will soon be used to deliver power to a Scorpion, the most advanced full harvester, produced by the world’s leading manufacturer of forestry machines.

The delivery of 11,111 engines represents a period of more than 15 years, throughout which Ponsse has put its trust in the reliability of the engines delivered by its exclusive supplier MTU.

“Our products occupy the premium segment in the market for wood harvesting equipment and are recognised throughout the world for their operational efficiency and durability,” said Dr. Juha Inberg, Director Technology and R&D at Ponsse plc.

The demands placed on the engines are correspondingly high. They are required to complete 4,000 to 6,000 hours of operation every year – and must do that under the most adverse operating conditions, on tough terrain and under extreme cold and heat. The drive systems based on Mercedes-Benz truck engines have been optimised by MTU for off-highway requirements.

Since January 2017, Ponsse has also been testing one of the first of the Stage V generation 6R 1000 engines under these conditions. Installed in an Ergo harvester, it has undergone a thorough test programme. After the successful completion of the tests, Ponsse placed an order for a further five Stage V engines, two 4R 1000s and four 6R 1000s.

Stage V engine has already completed more than 1,000 hours of operation
The new engines in non-road mobile agricultural machinery and other off-highway applications, will have to meet the much tougher Stage V emission regulations as of 2019. MTU’s 6R 1000 engine has already completed more than 1,000 hours of operation in an Ergo harvester to Ponsse’s complete satisfaction and has done so in freezing temperatures, which in some cases dropped below minus 30 C.

“This experience is very important for the ‘Stage V engines’ development programme, because we are able to demonstrate the functionality, reliability and durability of the engine under extremely difficult conditions. We can also identify if any improvements may need to be made long before series production starts,” said Stefan Rudert, Head of Application Engineering for Construction and Agriculture at MTU.

Press photos are available for download from www.rrpowersystems.com/press

About Rolls-Royce Holdings plc

1. Rolls-Royce’s vision is to be the market-leader in high performance power systems where our engineering expertise, global reach and deep industry knowledge deliver outstanding customer relationships and solutions. We operate across five businesses: Civil Aerospace, Defence Aerospace, Marine, Nuclear and Power Systems.
2. Rolls-Royce Power Systems is headquartered in Friedrichshafen in southern Germany and employs around 10,000 people. The product portfolio includes MTU-brand high-speed engines and propulsion systems for ships, power generation, heavy land, rail and defence vehicles and for the oil and gas industry. Under the MTU Onsite Energy brand, the company markets diesel gensets for emergency, base load and peak load applications as well as cogeneration plants using gas engines for the combined generation of heat and power. Bergen medium-speed engines power ships and power generation applications. L’Orange completes the portfolio with fuel injection systems for large engines.
3. Rolls-Royce has customers in more than 150 countries, comprising more than 400 airlines and leasing customers, 160 armed forces, 4,000 marine customers including 70 navies, and more than 5,000 power and nuclear customers.
4. We have three common themes across all our businesses:
   • Investing in and developing engineering excellence
   • Driving a manufacturing and supply chain transformation which will embed operational excellence in lean, lower-cost facilities and processes
   • Leveraging our installed base, product knowledge and engineering capabilities to provide customers with outstanding service through which we can capture aftermarket value long into the future.
5. Annual underlying revenue was £13.8 billion in 2016, around half of which came from the provision of aftermarket services. The firm and announced order book stood at £80 billion at the end of 2016.
6. In 2016, Rolls-Royce invested £1.3 billion on research and development. We also support a global network of 31 University Technology Centres, which position Rolls-Royce engineers at the forefront of scientific research.
7. Rolls-Royce employs almost 50,000 people in 50 countries. More than 16,500 of these are engineers.
8. The Group has a strong commitment to apprentice and graduate recruitment and to further developing employee skills. In 2016 we recruited 274 graduates and 327 apprentices through our worldwide training programmes.

SOURCE: Rolls-Royce plc

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