Never Sea Land brings us the largest engine ever built:

The Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel ship engine is the most powerful and most efficient prime-mover in the world today. The Aioi Works of Japan’s Diesel United, Ltd built the first engines and is where some of these pictures were taken.

It is available in 6 through 14 cylinder versions, all are inline engines. These engines were designed primarily for very large container ships. Ship owners like a single engine/single propeller design and the new generation of larger container ships needed a bigger engine to propel them.

The cylinder bore is just under 38″ and the stroke is just over 98″.

The engine weighs in at 2,300 tons and is capable of delivering 109,000 horsepower.

The largest piston in the world!

More Enormous Piston Rods.

“DU-Sulzer 12RT A96C” translated to “One large MFD”

How it works.

Smile, I like it!

So you’re wondering what this behemoth powers… right? Nothing less impressive than the

Emma Maersk

.

The Emma Maersk, underway at full speed.

Small tugboat pulls the world’s largest ship into port.

Emma Maersk as she looks from the sky.

A Comparison of the World’s Largest Ships (from the Wall Street Journal) . We hate to tell the world’s premier business newspaper they forgot one… but they did. Larger than Emma Maersk is the The Ultra Large Crude Carrier (now an FPSO) Knock Nevis... formerly known as Seawise Giant, Happy Giant, and Jahre Viking.

Think that’s impressive…. what if she ever caught fire??

SHE DID: Emma Maersk Fire

For more horsepower check out our previous ship’s engineer posts:

• Maersk Container Ship Engine Room Tour
• Victory Ship Engine Room Tour
• Photo Of An Engine
• Ship Engine Falls Off Truck – San Diego
• CO2 Firefighting and an Engine Room Fire

References:

• Ports and Ships Maritime News
• Wartsila Press Release

Post links via Fred Fry via Never Sea Land via Maritime News Discoverer

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