Finning Power Systems News

Solent Towage Ltd (STL) reports that is has saved more than 60-man hours since December 2013 by installing gplink, the remote monitoring and tracking solution from Finning Power Systems (Finning) for Cat engines. The company operates a fleet of seven tugboats off the UK’s south coast, two of which use Cat engines. Several vessels in Solent Towage’s fleet are chartered for 186 days per year by the operator of a large oil refinery in the area, according to the charter, fuel consumed by the STL fleet is provided by the refinery.

Solent Towage Ltd (STL), the UK arm of Norwegian marine services company, Ostensjo Rederi AS, has saved over 60-man hours since December 2013 by installing gplink, the remote monitoring and tracking solution from Finning Power Systems (Finning) for Cat® engines. The company, which operates a fleet of seven tugboats off the UK’s south coast, two of which use Cat engines, became the first commercial Finning customer in the UK to use gplink. Some vessels in Solent Towage’s fleet are chartered for 186 days per year by the operator of a large oil refinery in the area.

Finning Power Systems, the U.K.’s sole supplier of Caterpillar engines has signed an exclusive £2.5 million, five-year agreement with Serco, the international service company, to provide product support for all of the company’s U.K. and Ireland marine operations as well as all land-based generator sets located at over 400 facilities nationwide. Finning has been providing engine support to Serco for the past year on its “Future Provision of Maritime Services contract (FMPS),” a contract awarded to Serco by the U.K. Ministry of Defense for the provision of marine services at UK Royal Navy bases.

Finning Power Systems (Finning) has achieved Platinum status in maritime industry consulting firm, Germanischer Lloyd’s Marine Service Assessment. Finning, the sole supplier of Caterpillar equipment in the UK has received a Platinum award from global maritime industry consulting firm, Germanischer Lloyd (GL), for its high levels of service, delivery and support on marine diesel engines and generator sets. Following a two day assessment by GL, Finning achieved the highest score of any Caterpillar dealer to date, and became the third dealer in the EAME to be awarded Platinum status.

Offshore Marine Support’s marine survey vessel, the Mabel Alice, has a long and distinguished track record spanning more than 30 years which, as skipper, Andy Iannetta explains, has been made possible thanks to the durability and performance of its original Cat 3408 engines, supplied by Finning Power Systems (Finning). "Mabel Alice was built as an RNLI vessel and served as the replacement for the ill-fated Solomon Browne, which tragically lost all of its crew during the Penlee lifeboat disaster in Cornwall in December 1981.

To mark this year’s National Apprentice Week (6 – 10 February 2012), Finning Power Systems (Finning), the UK’s sole supplier of Caterpillar marine engines, is announcing that places are now available for its next intake of marine apprentices. The company is seeking young, enthusiastic talent to join its long-established marine apprenticeship scheme; a scheme that has been offering young people in the UK the opportunity to develop their engineering skills since the early 1960s.

Finning Power Systems (Finning), the UK’s sole supplier of Caterpillar engines, has signed a contract in excess of  $11.2M with BAE Systems for the supply of propulsion engines and associated machinery for the re-propulsion of eight Royal Navy HUNT Class Mine Counter-Measure Vessels (MCMVs). Following an agreement between the UK Ministry of Defence and BAE Systems, the vessels are to be refitted over a five-year period at Portsmouth naval base. Under the terms of the contract, Finning will supply the eight ships with sixteen Caterpillar C32 ACERT marine propulsion engines, gearboxes, mounting rafts, local operating panels and hydraulic systems that drive the existing bow thrusters.

To recognize the "best of the best" Cat Marine Dealer service technicians, Caterpillar Engine Products Division developed the TEC Masters Top Gun Competition. Throughout the past year, 211 North American Cat Marine Dealer service technicians completed three training modules on electronic diesel engine systems. The 19 scoring the highest competed against each other in a national finals competition that included a written exam, hands-on diesel engine troubleshooting and a test on customer service skills. The day-long event provided contestants with 45 minutes to correctly troubleshoot twin "bugged" Cat electronic engines aboard a mid-sized sportfishing boat. An example of the problem they were faced with was low power. They needed to identify the problem and correct it.