Once upon a time, Croatia used to have a very strong industry and produced and exported some major components and tools. These days, we’re rarely reminded of that bright past, but Adriadiesel company did just that.
Adriadiesel company is the biggest in southeastern Europe when it comes to producing diesel engines and the equipment for energy and technology factories. In early August the company reported on their website that an engine was delivered to them from the Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant. Smolensk is one of the biggest such plants in Russia. The diesel engine of the type 12ZV40/48 was originally made in the Karlovac-based factory (back when it was called Jugoturbina, and well-known around the world under that name) back in 1978, and has worked in Smolensk non-stop since then! It shouldn’t surprise anyone that after those 42 years, the engine needed to undergo a complete overhaul, after which it’s as good as brand new, hopefully, ready for the next 42 years.* As you can imagine, it’s not just your everyday engine – it weighs 84 tonnes, so it needed a special kind of delivery arrangements. It was brought to Zagreb Airport in an Antonov 124-100, one of the biggest airplanes in the world. This airplane will take it back to Russia this Friday, Snježana Bičak writes for Večernji list.
While the Adriadiesel company has not reported on what needed to be done on the engine which has been in operation for 42 years (!), they did say it took them just 90 days to complete the complex job. Since 2004, they’ve done 13 such overhauls on the engines. Since they started making these engines based on the licence by the Swiss Sulzer company, they’ve made around 80 similar motors, which are mostly installed in the Eastern part of Europe. At this moment the company has contracts to build 6 new diesel engines, with a total value of around USD 60 million.
* – Although, probably not, as the plans are for the reactors of the Smolensk plant to be completely shut down until 2050.
