Japanese licensee marks milestone in diesel engine manufacture Kawasaki Heavy Industry (KHI) has celebrated the 100th anniversary of its engine-manufacturing license with MAN Diesel & Turbo.
Spread over four days, the celebrations were capped with a technical event in Kobe featuring over 140 attendees. Dr Stephan Timmermann, member of MAN Diesel & Turbo’s Executive Board, spoke of the special relationship between his company and its longest prevailing licensee. Dr Timmermann pointed to the uniqueness of the cooperation in the world of licensing, due to other such often developing in different directions, or that technology losing relevance. He praised Kawasaki for contributing actively to this remarkable technical achievement, and stated that Kawasaki and MAN Diesel & Turbo were working closely together to find the answers to today’s and tomorrow’s demands for environmentally friendly seaborne transportation.
Over the years, KHI has time and again produced engines of note, the latest being in June 2011 with the delivery of the world's largest, medium-speed power unit, an 18-MW engine for Okinawa Electric Power Company to provide power on Ishigaki Island. Low-speed engine cooperation has been similarly successful and, just last year, KHI renewed its two-stroke licence agreement for the production of MAN B&W-branded engines.