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Wheel of Fortune Year for Beta Marine
01 Jan 2005
Beta Marine has reported a successful trading year in 2004, with over 1,800 propulsion engines and marine gensets sold to over 50 distributors worldwide. Beta's range of small propulsion engines from 10 to 90hp are based on Kubota diesels, which are also used in the company's small genset range from 5 to 33kVA.
One interesting installation last year was the placement of Cummins 6BT5.9 main engines onboard two ferries built to take tourists on the spectacular Falkirk Wheel, the centrepiece of British Waterways' £84.5m canal restoration project in Scotland.
The world's first and only rotating boatlift, the Falkirk Wheel reconnects the Union Canal with the Forth & Clyde Canal.
The two new boats, Archimedes and Antonine , are 64ft LOA and will each carry up to 90 passengers through a 35m sweeping lift to the Union Canal above and onwards through the Roughcastle Tunnel and under the historic Antonine Wall.
Built by Richards Dry Dock and Engineering Ltd of Great Yarmouth, the crafts' 5.9 litre engines deliver 180hp at 2,500 rpm and drive two variable displacement hydraulic pumps for main propulsion as well as bow and stern thrusters.
Also mounted on the Cummins are 7kVA Electrolux AC generators which Beta have recently introduced on the inland waterways. The cost effective and compact solution to getting AC power from variable speed propulsion engines is capable of operating over the engine speed range from 750 to 2,500rpm.
MJ Information No: 20229
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