Thursday, April 17, 2008

Danish Quantity


Emma Mærsk is a container ship owned by the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group. When she was launched, Emma Mærsk was the largest container ship ever built, and as of 2007 the longest ship in use. (Wiki article.)

I knew that Danes competes well in quality, but I did not know they occasionally did so in quantity as well.

It has the world's biggest diesel engine.

Bert added:
One thing worth mentioning about that diesel engine is that it also is the world's most efficient internal combustion engine, actually converting around 50% of the total energy in the fuel into mechanical force.
Add to this that it runs at the propeller speed (~100 RPM (IIRC)), no inefficient gears or other transmission mechanisms are used.
All in all, roughly five to ten times better than your average automobile.

Not bad!
What a challenge for auto makers.

(That's a big dinghy. Looks like just walking across the bridge will take ten minutes.)

6 comments:

Alex said...

Isn't one of the longest bridges in Denmark,or rather between Denmark and Norway?

Alex said...

Shows how much I've forgotten

http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storeb%C3%A6ltsbroen

It was internal, and I'd switched Norway and Sweden in my mental map.

We had some kit installed on this bridge, and my company never sent me there. I had my passport all ready etc, and they sent me to California instead!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes, it's internally in Denmark.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Belt_Bridge

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Gee, the Danish article says the bridge was planned for almost a century before it became reality!

Alex said...

One of the earlier plans for the Channel Tunnel included a loop road which came out of a cliff, over the water, and back into the cliff. There were a series of gates and portcullises so that if an invading army were spotted on the loop the country could be defended. I think this was in the Napoleonic era.

100 years before being built? 1880's, that's when engineering was really strong, high pressure steam good iron and steel. The rules were changing rapidly. The only limit was imagination.

Bert said...

One thing worth mentioning about that diesel engine is that it also is the world's most efficient internal combustion engine, actually converting around 50% of the total energy in the fuel into mechanical force.

Add to this that it runs at the propeller speed (~130 RPM (IIRC)), no inefficient gears or other transmission mechanisms are used.

All in all, roughly five to ten times better than your average automobile.