Highest fuel efficiency, largest worldwide orderbook, license agreement with a U.S. manufacturer, M.A.N.-B&W Diesel market leader in large diesels: These are some of the ways in which the Danish diesel designer has made news during the past year.

Earlier this year a license agreement was signed with Allis-Chalmers of Milwaukee for the manufacture and sale/marketing of B&W low-speed engines on the U.S. market.

The old Burmeister & Wain diesel traditions are carried on in the new company, B&W Diesel, which after the takeover by M.A.N. is enjoying a well-secured financial base. In order to intensify the cooperation, a joint company has been formed — M.A.N.-B&W Diesel GmbH — to coordinate all diesel engine marketing and licensing activities.

Development of 2-stroke, low-speed engines will be concentrated in Copenhagen as B&W's responsibility. These engines will follow the uniflow scavenged design that in recent years has made commendable improvements in fuel consumption.

B&W recently announced, and already contracted for, an uprated version of the L-GFCA engine. The new L-GB engine has 15 percent higher output with a 3 gram per horsepower-hour reduction in fuel consumption. A fuel-optimized version, the L-GBE, has the same rating as the successful L-GFCA engine but with a substantial fuel reduction of 6 grams per bhp-hour. The L-GB and L-GBE, which will be available from 1983 onward, will be equipped with automatic adjustment of the fuel injection lead to achieve a further reduction in fuel consumption at part load.

The new L-GB and L-GBE Series will include a completely new size of B&W crosshead engine — 350 mm bore, developing 680 bhp per cylinder at 200 rpm. With outputs down to 2,720 bhp, it will be a direct competitor to many four-stroke, trunk piston engines.

The joint M.A.N.-B&W four-stroke, trunk engine program embraces the original M.A.N. designs and the smaller B&W T/V 23L and S/U 28L models, capable of burning heavy fuel.

Recently, the largest oceangoing tugboat ever built in the U.S. for Belcher Oil Company, was delivered equipped with a B&W low-speed engine of the type 7L67GFCA.

Another recent milestone was the installation of long-stroke, low-speed B&W engines in RO/RO vessels for the Swedish shipowner Brostrom, utilizing the engines' ability to accommodate an extremely low engine room height.