Common Rail

Large container vessels today are powered by slow-running two-stroke engines with direct fuel injection. This design is convincing by reason of its very favourable specific fuel consumption – with their efficiency ratio of over 50 per cent, slow-running diesel engines are the best thermal engines – as well as low maintenance costs and high reliability.

The dimensions of these drives, but also medium-sized and smaller ships’ engines, give some indication of the quantities of fuel required. The paramount goal of any innovation is to economise on fuel. Optimised engine technology reduces fuel consumption and with it CO2 emissions. This also includes electronically controlled common rail injection. This system is characterised by the fact that injection timing and fuel quantity can be calculated for each individual cylinder, and fuel injected through fast-switching solenoid valves. The very-high-pressure fuel required (approximately 700 bar) is fed electronically to the injector valves from one common pressure accumulator.