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Lake Constance News

02 Feb 2021

Swiss Passenger Vessel Serving as Vaccine 'Shot Ship' for Lakeside Towns

© scaliger / Adobe Stock

An 89-year-old passenger ship, out of commission due to the coronavirus pandemic, was repurposed on Tuesday as a COVID-19 vaccination center for thousands of residents from cities on Lake Constance.The 500-passenger MS Thurgau normally carries tourists and commuters between German and Swiss cities on Europe’s third-largest lake. In coming weeks it will serve as a floating inoculation hub for northern Swiss towns Romanshorn, Arbon and Kreuzlingen.Regional officials emphasized the ship’s practicality since it can sail from harbor to harbor…

12 Jun 2017

Lake Constance Ferry to Test MTU Gas Engine

From left: Stefan Ballier, senior manager of ferry operations at the Constance utility; Dr. Norbert Reuter, head of the city of Constance utility company; Andreas Schell, CEO of Rolls-Royce Power Systems; and Matthias Vogel, Vice President Sales at Rolls-Royce Power Systems. (Photo: Rolls-Royce Power Systems)

From 2019, Rolls-Royce Power Systems and the City of Constance public utility are to begin testing the marine propulsion technology of the future on Lake Constance. This takes the form of a gas engine carrying the MTU brand. The public utility's new car ferry is to be equipped with twin eight-cylinder Series 4000 gas engines from MTU, each delivering 746 kW. This makes it the first inland waterway passenger vessel in Europe to be propelled by straightforward high-speed gas engines. The fuel will be liquefied natural gas.

07 Jul 2016

Rolls-Royce Unveils MTU Gas Marine Engine

MTU’s new gas engine on the test bench (Photo: Rolls-Royce Power Systems)

MTU’s new gas engine for commercial marine applications – the first from Rolls-Royce – has undergone some 3,000 hours on the test bench and is now ready to enter series production as the first high-speed pure-gas marine engine. “We can now confirm that the engine meets both our requirements and those of our customers: its performance and its acceleration behavior are similar to the excellent characteristics of a diesel engine,” said Dr. Ulrich Dohle, CEO of Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG.

19 Feb 2016

IMCI Accredited for Exhaust Emissions Measurement

The International Marine Certification Institute (IMCI) has become an accredited laboratory for exhaust emissions measurement.   The official announcement was confirmed by the German authority on January 22, 2016.    IMCI is now accredited by District Office of Constance (Germany) as a laboratory for exhaust emission measurement according to Lake Constance Regulation (reflecting Annex G of BSO).    Douglas French / USA was announced as a responsible inspector.

16 Oct 2015

The Triumph of the Container

A 40-foot-container. This invention opened up totally new markets to producers. (Photo: Hapag-Lloyd)

Globalization is the driving force of container shipping, as ever more goods are transported across the world’s oceans in steel boxes on ever-larger container ships. But container shipping is also what made globalization possible in the first place. The principle of division of labor is nothing new to us today. In 1776, the economist Adam Smith, a formative thinker of the free market economy, elucidated this concept in his book, The Wealth of Nations. The operative principle is that the employees of a company divide up different tasks and thereby increase their productivity.

08 Sep 2015

Two IMCI Seminars on Recreational Craft Directive

There being a new Recreational Craft Directive is now common knowledge in the industry, because of which and due to brisk demand, IMCI organized several seminars to bring the boat building community up to speed with the new requirements. The first was at IMCI Headquarters in Belgium and then, in collaboration with the Association of Lake Constance yards for its members, two informative CE seminars at the Ultramarine at Lake Constance. The seminars received a lively, positive response with a total of 25 participants and tie in with the seminars in recent years also held in Travemünde, Germany. The focus of the seminars was the new RCD 2013/53 / EU.

31 Aug 2015

ZF Turns 100

Daniel Härter, VP Industrial Technology, Head of  Business Unit Marine Propulsion Systems, ZF Marine

ZF Friedrichshafen AG is celebrating its centennial in 2015. Founded in the city of Friedrichshafen at Lake Constance in 1915 as “Zahnradfabrik GmbH,” the company developed from an aviation specialist with regional roots to an international technology company active on the global mobility markets, including maritime. MR recently visited with Daniel Härter, Vice President Industrial Technology, Head of Business Unit Marine Propulsion Systems, who took over responsibility for ZF Marine as of September 1, 2014. ZF is obviously large and diverse across many markets.

28 Jan 2015

ZF Celebrating 100th Anniversary

ZF's corporate headquarter in Friedrichshafen, Germany (Photo: ZF)

Zahnradfabrik GmbH was founded in 1915, and through a 100-year history has developed into a leading technology company in driveline and chassis technology with a global network of 71,600 employees at 122 locations worldwide. ZF developed from its roots as a supplier specialized on the aviation industry to a global mobility technology company. Its founding at Lake Constance 100 years ago had its origins in Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH, which was headquartered there at the time and which was also a shareholding partner of Zahnradfabrik: The task of the newly founded company was to develop…

25 Jun 2014

TUI CEO Steps Aside from Charitiable Foundation Chair

Thomas Ellerbeck, member of the Management Board of the Germany-based travel and cruise ship firm TUI AG, has been appointed by the Group’s Executive Board to take over this mandate from Friedrich Joussen, who is CEO of TUI AG. (With Hapag-Lloyd Kreuzfahrten and TUI Cruises, TUI AG’s portfolio has two brands in its portfolia offering maritime holidays. It is also in a joint venture with Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. which offers cruises for the German-speaking market aboard the cruise ship Mein Schiff 1). TUI explain that Ellerbeck is the company’s Management Board member in charge of Corporate & External Affairs, including Politics, International Relations, Group Communications, CR and Sustainable Development, the TUI Foundation and the Trademarks, Patents and Licenses Department.

01 Jun 2014

Rolls-Royce's MTU Invites Participants For FUNSports³ Events

On September 27, 2014, the focus will be on running, climbing and playing at the FUNSports³ event at the Forstwiesen in Immenstaad. For the second time, Rolls-Royce Power Systems subsidiary MTU Friedrichshafen, BKK MTU and the Mercedes-Benz plant in Ravensburg are inviting keen runners from the Lake Constance –Upper Swabia region as well as company employees and their families to this event. Whether they choose running, walking or relay, all participants have to complete a 12 km course. They will start at 13:30 h from Oberteuringen to Immenstaad. The running events are open to everybody. The participants must only decide whether they want to run or walk the 12 km course or whether they want to join a team and run a five or seven kilometer long relay race.

06 Dec 2013

Marine Engine Builder Wins Happy Family Award

Maria Galgoczi at work: Photo Tognum

The Tognum Group & its subsidiary MTU Friedrichshafen situated on Lake Constance provide staff with numerous possibilities for reconciling the demands of work and private life, now recognized for the third time as a 'Family-Friendly Employer'. Official presentation of the accolade is to take place in Berlin in the summer of next year. The manufacturing group provides staff with numerous possibilities for reconciling the demands of work and private life. "As far as the work-life balance is concerned…

19 Sep 2013

MTU Environmental Foundation Offers Grant

Grant from the MTU Environmental Foundation to promote the environmental protection of Lake Constance; Environmental protection a major corporate mission of the Tognum Group. For the fourth time, the MTU Environmental Foundation is inviting tenders for a grant of 20,000 euros for environmental protection projects on Lake Constance. The invitation to tender issued by Tognum subsidiary MTU Friedrichshafen is addressed to those engaged in specific teaching or training projects or in schemes for renaturation or species conservation to be enacted in the period 2014-15.

27 Jun 2013

Tognum Make Ramblers Happy with Path Agreement

MTU Lake Constance Pathway: Image credit MTU

Tognum has agreed to the building of a public path running between its MTU plant in the Friedrichshafen district of Manzell and the shore of Lake Constance. A contract to that effect has been signed  by Joachim Coers, CEO of Tognum and managing director of MTU; Andreas Brand, Lord Mayor of Friedrichshafen; and Lothar Heissel, chief architect from the regional administrative authority (Präsidium) in Tübingen. With its signature, MTU Friedrichshafen allows Friedrichshafen City Council to build the path directly in front of the MTU Plant 2 site.

02 Jul 2012

Tognum Opens MTU Material Management Center

Tognmum MMC Facility: Image credit Tognum

Tognum CTO Dr. Ulrich Dohle opened the facility situated in the Friedrichshafen district of Kluftern near Lake Constance. Over the next few months, the MMC will be entirely responsible for supplying parts to Friedrichshafen manufacturing plants and will later extend its activities to take in other production facilities in the international network. Tognum, a provider of propulsion and power solutions, and its new partner Stute Logistics, the Kühne + Nagel subsidiary that is operating the warehouse, together invested around 50 million euros in the ultra-modern Materials Management Center.

22 Mar 2011

Tognum Expands Production Network

Friedrichshafen, 21 March 2011. The specialist for propulsion and power solutions Tognum is expanding its production capacity in Europe. Tognum is to invest several million euros in the next few years in the lead plant in Friedrichshafen and in a new facility in Eastern Europe, in order to bring its production and assembly capacity in line with the significant growth expected in the years ahead. The investments, which were recently approved by the Supervisory Board, are the result…

06 Apr 2004

Technology: Cool Technology

While debate continues on whether or not fuel cell-based power generation can be a viable proposition for the commercial marine market, its advocates in the engineering industry are making headway in giving practical form to the technology. The installation of a fuel cell power unit aboard a 12-m (approx. 40-ft) yacht, fully approved and safety-certificated by Germanischer Lloyd, has provided an important, albeit modestly-sized, new waterborne platform for the concept. Using Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM)-type fuel cell modules supplied by Ballard Power Systems of Canada, MTU Friedrichshafen has prepared a complete propulsion system which enables the craft, known as No. 1, to run at seven knots under fuel cell power alone.

10 Sep 2004

Voith to Exhibit VWT Baut at SMM

At this year's SMM in Hamburg, Voith Turbo (Hall 5, Stand 212) will highlight the new Voith Water Tractor (VWT) Baut (pictured right) which has been put in service by Bukser og Berging A/S in Oslo. It is the fifth VWT of the Bukser fleet, but the first fitted with optimized blades. In addition to Baut, the largest ferry currently in service on Lake Constance will be shown, attracting attention by its unusual design. The company's R&D team will introduce the latest developments of the Voith Schneider Propeller. The new, modified blades and optimized kinematics improve the overall performance of the propeller. A new Voith Schneider Propeller generation has been created.