Centa News

The Boat builders in Freeland, Washington, Nichols Brothers Boat Builders (NBBB) has successfully trialed and delivered Baydelta Maritime’s,  new 100’ x 40’ Delta Class Hybrid Tractor Tug.The Tug is the seventh tractor tug NBBB has built for Baydelta and its affiliated companies, but the first Hybrid, an exciting milestone for both NBBB and Baydelta.Baydelta CEO, Shawn Bennett said: "The Delta Teresa is a great addition to our fleet of the 100x40 90 ton tugs. Baydelta and Nichols Brothers have a long standing relationship, together creating what is widely recognized as the premier Harbor tug class”.The tug is powered by two (2) Caterpillar C3516 C Tier 3 diesel engines each rated at 1995 kW @ 1600 rpm and by two (2) 424kw electric motors.

Canada-based provider of oil cargo transportation services Island Tug and Barge Ltd informed that s new ATB push tug the Island Raider has entered service pushing the double hulled refined petroleum products barge, ITB Resolution.The Island Raider is the first of two, twin Z-drive, ATB push tugs for service on the West Coast of North America. Constructed at Island Tug’s Annacis Island Shipyard on the Fraser River, the Island Raider is connected by an articulating pin system to the ITB Resolution which was retrofitted with pin ladders and stern extensions for connecting to the new tug.According to Robert Allan Ltd, who designed the tug…

San Francisco’s Jensen-designed super pumping fireboat is like none that came before her. As a result, the City by the Bay is prepared like never before, for its next crisis. Christened on October 17, appropriately enough on the anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the city of San Francisco’s first new fireboat in almost 60 years is an especially unique boat, designed and built for a specific purpose. When the infamous quake burst the domestic water lines beneath San Francisco, it left local firefighters scrambling for a water source from which they could fight the fires that ensued. Today, Fireboat 3 – named locally by a young grade school student as the St.

The ITB Marine Group Ltd. (ITB) is currently well into construction of the first of two, twin Z-drive, ATB pusher tugs for service on the West Coast of North America. The tugs are being built at their Annacis Island Shipyard near Vancouver. The tugs will be connected by an articulating pin system to the existing double-hulled oil barges ITB Reliant and ITB Resolution which will receive retrofitted pin ladders and stern extensions for connecting to the new tugs. ITB had a well-defined statement of requirements for the tugs and a relatively clear vision of the desired layout. Accordingly, the general arrangement for the tug was developed in close collaboration with ITB Marine Group’s Chairman of the Board Captain Bob Shields.

Vigor recently delivered an 88’ x 25’ x 14’ fireboat to the San Francisco Fire Department. The yet to be named vessel is the first fireboat to join San Francisco’s fleet in 61 years. Designed by Jensen Maritime and built at Vigor’s Seattle shipyard, the unique vessel is not only a firefighting tool but also a mobile pumping station powerhouse, the shipbuilder said. It’s capable of pumping millions of gallons of water directly from the Bay into the City’s Auxiliary Water System – a feature that will keep fire hoses flowing in the event an earthquake damages San Francisco’s water mains.

Rolls-Royce Power Systems has honoured its five best suppliers for outstanding performance in quality, logistics, environmental protection and cooperation in 2015. For the tenth year in a row, Rolls-Royce Power Systems has commended the top suppliers of its subsidiaries MTU, L’Orange and MTU Onsite Energy, choosing from a total of 495 candidates from around the globe. CFO Marcus A. Wassenberg stated “Our suppliers make a valuable contribution to product quality, substantially bolstering the competitive position of our engines and gensets, and consequently that of the entire company. For the third time, Harz Guss Zorge from Lower Saxony, Germany claimed the title of best supplier of unmachined parts. The company produces cylinder heads, exhaust elbows and engine mounts.

The management teams of CENTA Antriebe Kirschey GmbH and Christie & Grey Limited announce a strategic global sales cooperation between their companies. The agreement allows the two companies to join forces to engineer and strategically supply the industry’s premium “quiet drive” solutions - combining soft mounting systems, flexible couplings, and intermediate drive shaft systems. As a pioneer in innovation since 1914, Christie & Grey Limited manufactures durable and highly efficient vibration, noise, and shock control solutions for worldwide marine, industrial, and commercial applications. For over 100 years, Christie & Grey has been a leader in designing and building engineered and customized solutions.

The management teams of CENTA Antriebe Kirschey GmbH and Christie & Grey Limited have announced a strategic global sales cooperation. The agreement allows the two companies to join forces to engineer and strategically supply “quiet drive” solutions - combining soft mounting systems, flexible couplings, and intermediate drive shaft systems. Christie & Grey Limited manufactures engineered and customized vibration, noise and shock control solutions for worldwide marine, industrial, and commercial applications, while CENTA Antriebe manufactures torsional coupling and drive shaft systems, offering solutions to the marine, industrial, rail, and energy industries.

ZF Marine has taken delivery of a new 50 foot Viking Sportfishing yacht. The purpose of this vessel will be to demonstrate the ZF POD 4000 propulsion system. The vessel is equipped with two Caterpillar C18 engines each producing 1150 bhp. These engines are mated to ZF 500 series transmissions, which are connected to the POD units via Centa carbon fiber driveshafts. The ZF POD 4000 drives are the highest rated propulsion pods in the market today, rated to 1200 bhp. Control for the ZF POD 4000 comes from ZF Marine’s well established SmartCommand control system…

Early on the morning of October 28th, the BRAtt departed Point Roberts, Washington State bound for Seattle. Captain Ron Burchett and his able crew Alan Burchett and Ben Flodquist started out in 12 to 15 knot easterly winds and a two foot chop. With Boundary Bay abeam, the winds increased to NE 20 – 25, with four foot seas on the forward quarter. The ride was lively for this 28-ft tug, but with the heavy ballasted skeg the motions were very good with just moderate spray and no green water on deck.

British Columbia, on Canada’s west coast, has some attractive and well-proven tugs, but the fleet is aging with many vessels over thirty years old. Four years ago Vancouver’s Island Tug and Barge (www.islandtug.com) launched the new build Island Scout with a pair of Cummins KTA38 main engines. This August, they will return their 1977-built 21 x 7.3-m tug Island Defender to service. The midlife rebuild has taken a year to complete but as Island Tug’s president Bob Shields explained this was much more than a repower…

The BRAtt project evolved from Ron Burchett’s training programs for tug operators using radio-remote controlled scale models. Why not build a model that is large enough for the operator and instructor to ride on and learn in the same space frame of reference as the boat? The BRAtt is a 25.6 ft by 11.8 ft aluminum-hulled training tug designed by Robert Allan Ltd, with the designer’s distinctive double-chine hull form. Under the counter of the broad stern the hull tucks in quickly providing good water flow over the twin azimuthing drives located aft in the ASD manner.

The M/V Susitna is an Office of Naval Research (ONR) platform demonstrating variable geometry/variable draft capability in a twin hull marine vessel. Tests and trials of this first of class vessel will demonstrate its ability to operate as a deep draft, high speed vessel capable of carrying large payloads in high sea states with a stable ride, then transition to a shallow draft, beachable, landing craft mode capable of delivering Expeditionary Forces to the beach. M/V Susitna is an ice strengthened, twin hulled marine vessel.

CENTA is the first company worldwide to which Germanischer Lloyd (GL) has conferred the responsibility for alternative product certification of type-approved couplings. In the future, CENTA will have the authority to carry out acceptance testing and final stamping of those couplings that have previously been classified as approved types. These tests must be performed in accordance with the “Alternative Product Certification,” a modular certification system developed by Germanischer Lloyd (GL). The approval becomes valid by their joint signatures on the appropriate product certificate. CENTA is one of the leading manufacturers of flexible drive components worldwide and has been supplying couplings for marine applications for more than 20 years.

CENTA Corporation has moved to a new facility in Aurora, Illinois. The new building features over 23,000 sq ft for office, warehouse and manufacturing and assembly space. According to Bob Lennon, CENTA Corporation’s Director of Sales and Marketing, the new site will help the company service the significant sales growth it has experienced over the last several years, and will provide the room necessary for forecasted future growth. “The growth in demand for CENTA’s products over the last three years, and the forecast for further growth in marine, oil/gas and wind/power generation markets, made this move necessary,” said Lennon. “The new facility gives us the capacity for additional staff and added inventory to better serve our growing customer base.

On June 15, Western launched its largest piece of high-performance machinery to date: the 120-ft. (36.6 m) Gulf Titan which is 12 ft. longer than Western's two previous builds, the Western Titan and Pacific Titan. As with those two vessels, Western built the new Gulf Titan with design assistance from Jensen Maritime, Seattle. The added length will improve sea-keeping characteristics and increase fuel capacity by 40,000 gallons, says Bob Shrewsbury, Jr., president of Western Towboat Co., Inc. And a new five-blade propeller design with added pitch is expected to coax an extra 2,000 lbs. of bollard pull from the twin Z-drive propulsion system with high-performance nozzles.

Robert King, based in Paducah Kentucky, is the manager of Ingram Support Service a wholly owned subsidiary of Ingram Barge Lines charged with managing 20 vessels that operate on the Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. These are among the smaller vessels in Ingram’s 137-vessel fleet and so operate without engineers. King’s job is to minimize down time and maximize efficient operational hours. He expects to do just that for 87x30-foot Charles M. Everhart now that he has pulled a pair of 900 HP two-cycle engines and replaced them with a pair of Cummins KTA38 1000 HP @ 1800 RPM main engines. The new engines are equipped with the Cummins Eliminator and Centinel options.

Robert King, based in Paducah Kentucky, is the manager of Ingram Support Service a wholly owned subsidiary of Ingram Barge Lines charged with managing 20 vessels that operate on the Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. These are among the smaller vessels in Ingram's 137-vessel fleet and so operate without engineers. King's job is to minimize down time and maximize efficient operational hours. He expects to do just that for 87x30-ft. Charles M. Everhart now that he has pulled a pair of 900 hp two-cycle engines and replaced them with a pair of Cummins KTA38 1000 hp @ 1800 rpm main engines. The new engines are equipped with the Cummins Eliminator and Centinel options.

California Fish & Game recently took delivery of P/V Thresher, a 54 ft. all-aluminum catamaran, designed by Teknicraft of Aukland, New Zealand, and built by Kvichak Marine, of Seattle, Wash. The partially foil-supported catamaran will be stationed in Dana Point as a Fish and Game Marine Enforcement patrol vessel for Southern California. The cat's beam is 20.2 ft., and weighs nearly 28 tons fully loaded. Powered by twin Caterpillar 3196 DITA diesel engines, driving 30 in. stainless steel propellers through Twin Disc MG 5114A gears, Thresher cruises at 26 knots with a top speed of 30 knots. Deck equipment includes an aft deck A-frame to deploy and retrieve a customer-supplied Hurricane inflatable.

CENTA Corporation (www.centa.info) is moving to a new facility in Aurora, IL effective October 15, 2007. The new building features over 23,000 sq. ft. for office, warehouse, and manufacturing & assembly space. company service the significant sales growth seen over the last several years, and will provide the room necessary for forecasted future growth. “The growth in demand for CENTA’s products over the last three years, and the forecast for further growth in marine, oil/gas, and wind/power generation markets made this move necessary” says Lennon. “The new facility puts us where we need to be in terms of room for additional staff and added inventory to better serve our growing customer base.