The latest issue of Cummins Commentary features a report on the ISXe5, the new addition to Cummins’ heavy-duty truck engine line-up. Two fleets involved in the testing of the ISXe5 give their opinion on the engine. The magazine contains a host of other articles on Cummins power in applications including mining, power generation and marine.
Field testing of the biggest generator set ever developed by Cummins will begin at an Australian mine site later this year.
The 3.5 MW C3000-series generator set incorporates Cummins’ new QSK95 engine, a 95-litre V16 that achieves higher output from 16 cylinders than competitors’ 20-cylinder engines.
With an output of over 4000 hp, the QSK95 is the highest horsepower engine ever developed by Cummins.
The C3000-series marks the start of a new line of diesel and gas generator sets from Cummins.
A high-speed diesel (1200 to 1800 rpm), the QSK95 will eventually become available for a range of high-hour, high-load applications including power generation, mine trucks and excavators, oil and gas drilling modules, locomotives and marine vessels.
Cummins looks set for a greater presence in the Nolan’s Interstate Transport fleet with the release of the ISXe5 engine.
Nolan’s has been part of Cummins’ official field test program for the ISXe5, operating two Kenworths with the new 15-litre engine that uses SCR technology for emissions reduction.
One test engine is in a K200 rated at 600 hp/1850 lb ft, while the other is in a T409SAR rated at 550 hp/1850 lb ft.
“Our preference for our fleet now is SCR and we have the storage infrastructure in place to handle the requirement for AdBlue (urea),” says Nolan’s director Adrian (‘Flea’) Nolan.
One of Nolan’s two Kenworths that have been part of Cummins’ extensive ISXe5 field test program.
Mooloolaba Coast Guard on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast believes it now has the best rescue vessel of its type in Australia.
Powered by twin 8.3-litre Cummins QSC engines, each rated at 500 hp, the new 14-metre Rhondda Rescue went into service in late 2012 and has a sprint speed of 27 knots.
Capable of operating in cyclonic weather, Rhondda Rescue cost the Mooloolaba branch of the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard in excess of $1 million.
Neal Higgs understands the ocean at the entrance to the shipping channel leading to the Port of Brisbane. Thirty years of familiarity as a pilot boat skipper here have taught him its temperament.
He knows its winds, waves and tides, what lies beneath.
As the pilot launch nuzzles in against the container ship with a soft bump, matching its speed to the ship’s 10 knots and settling into the lee of her massive hull to put the pilot aboard, Higgs is a model of calm authority as senior coxswain for Brisbane Marine Pilots.
Today, the ocean is a bit choppy with 2 to 2.5-metre swells but nothing to worry about.
A day or so later, however, it’s a ‘high energy’ piece of ocean that Higgs confronts in the pilot launch, doing six pilot transfers in a night shift as the remnants of tropical Cyclone Oswald unleash high winds and flooding down the Queensland coast.
“It was a bit lumpy,” Higgs tells me later in a classic understatement, adding that the seas were five to 10 metres and the wind 40-plus knots.
Neal Higgs works out of the pilot station at Mooloolaba on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, where Brisbane Marine Pilots’ latest vessel, Skirmish, has been operating from since May 2012.
Cummins QSM11-powered Skirmish will carry out more than 60,000 pilot transfers during its service life with Brisbane Marine Pilots.
