Fuel Injection Pioneers Celebrate CR Production Milestone

Rolls-Royce Power Systems inform that a total of 50,000 Common Rail injection pumps have come off the conveyor belt at L’Orange GmbH in Glatten since 1997.

The manufacturer of injection systems for internal combustion engines is generally acknowledged to have pioneered the Common Rail - a technology that raised fuel combustion efficiency and lowered emissions. Back in 1997, L’Orange became the first supplier worldwide to develop a series-production Common Rail pump for diesel and heavy-oil engines. Since then, the production and ongoing development of injection pumps has been one of the mainstays of business at L’Orange, a company with a rich engineering tradition. 

This development laid the foundations for the immense progress that followed in the field of injection systems for high-speed diesel engines. During this period, the company's machine park underwent considerable expansion. At the same time, the L’Orange work force demonstrated an extraordinary level of commitment and flexibility in response to business development on the market for large engines, which occasionally required short, sharp rises in output.

120 guests came to the celebration - current and former employees from various fields who have contributed directly or indirectly to the development and production of Common Rail pumps. CEO Dr Ralph-Michael Schmidt underlined the significance of the '50,000 pumps' statistic. "Strategically speaking, the decision to develop Common Rail technology has been one of the most important in our corporate history."

It was in 1994 that diesel engine manufacturer MTU Friedrichshafen, now, like L’Orange, a member of Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG, requested the company to develop an injection pump for its new Series 4000 unit that would demand very little installation space. The work that followed demanded totally new approaches, culminating in the Common Rail pump. "L’Orange again stood out as pioneer of a technology that many of its competitors didn’t even know about at the time," said Schmidt. "Our technological leadership has been a shining light on the market," he added.