The record-breaking Wärtsilä 31 engine will drive future engine development for the OEM

Engine major Wärtsilä says it is working on a programme of marine engine expansion that will rival the Wärtsilä 20 engine series for impact.

Speaking exclusively to Marine Propulsion on a tour of the OEM’s Vaasa facility this month, Wärtsilä 31 product manager Robert Ollus spoke of the Wärtsilä 31 as a “blueprint for a whole generation of engines” that will span both smaller and larger engine sizes.

Mr Ollus said that “a bigger brother and a smaller brother” would be joining the Wärtsilä 31 series. The siblings should be launched into the market within the next five years.

So far nine Wärtsilä 31 engines have been sold in the marine sector. The most recent order was from Research Fishing Co based in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, to power a state-of-the-art pelagic trawler.

While the low sales figure is “behind where we would like it to be,” Mr Ollus said it was a feature of today’s tough market conditions. He expressed confidence that there will be strong market uptake and cited the time and man hour savings offered by the Wärtsilä 31 as a particular selling point. “We believe the engine can reduce the need for maintenance work by as much as 50 per cent.”

When launched two years ago, the Wärtsilä 31 was billed as the first of a new generation of medium-speed engines. The Guinness Book of World Records refers to it as the most fuel-efficient four-stroke engine in the world.