History of Sulzer diesel engines

This article covers the History of Sulzer diesel engines from 1898 to 1997. Sulzer Brothers foundry was established in Winterthur, Switzerland, in 1834 by Johann Jakob Sulzer-Neuffert and his two sons, Johann Jakob and Salomon. Products included cast iron, firefighting pumps and textile machinery. Co-operation with Rudolf Diesel led to the construction of the first Sulzer diesel engine in 1898. In 2015, the Sulzer company lives on but it no longer manufactures diesel engines, having sold the diesel engine business to Wärtsilä in 1997. [1][2]

Sulzer diesel engine of 1898

Overview

Sulzer built diesel engines for stationary, road, rail and marine use. The engine types usually comprise a number, then some letters, then another number. For example, 6LDA28 indicates a six-cylinder engine in the "LDA" series with a 28cm cylinder bore.

Stationary
Sulzer diesel engine of 1912 at the Internal Fire – Museum of Power in Wales

Two twin cylinder engines at King Edward Mine, Camborne(http://kingedwardmine.co.uk/) They were originally installed for the Falmouth Water Company around 1926/27, one of them was kept as standby until the early 1970s. King Edward Mine removed the engines in 1989 and erected the better one at KEM around 1994.

Road

In 1937, Sulzer introduced an opposed piston two-stroke diesel engine for road use. This was similar to the Commer TS3 but had a piston-type blower instead of a Roots blower. It was made in two sizes: 69mm bore x 101.6mm stroke or 89mm bore by 120mm stroke. The smaller version had two cylinders, produced 35 hp, and was intended for tractors. The larger version was available with two, three or four cylinders and was intended for trucks.[3]

Rail
Sulzer diesel engine from a railway locomotive at the National Railway Museum, York, England

These are examples, not a full list.

Type LDA28
Example applications, 6 cylinders
Example applications, 8 cylinders
Example applications, 12 cylinders

Type LVA24
Example applications, 12 cylinders
Example applications, 16 cylinders

Type LV31
Example applications, 8 cylinders

Marine
Sulzer 9RTA76

These are examples, not a full list.

Type RTA76
Example applications, 5 cylinders
Example applications, 8 cylinders

Type TADS56
Example applications, 5 cylinders

Licences

Licences to build diesel engines to Sulzer's design were granted to Vickers-Armstrongs in the United Kingdom, to Busch-Sulzer in the United States, to Reșița works in Romania and to H. Cegielski – Poznań in Poland.

References
  1. "21st century".
  2. "Sulzer engine, 6LDA28, LVA24".
  3. Smith, Donald H. (1959). The Modern Diesel (13th ed.). London: Iliffe & Sons. pp. 192–193.
  4. Clark, Peter J. (1973). An Australian Diesel Locomotive Pocketbook. NSW Australia: Australian Railway Historical Society. p. 141. ISBN 0-909650-02-0.
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