MTU and Sulzer Metco sign engine program partnership agreement
MTU Aero Engines GmbH, a DaimlerChrysler subsidiary, and Eldim B.V., a Sulzer Metco company, inked a strategic GP7000 partnership agreement, according to which Eldim takes a roughly 1% stake of the GP7000 engine in MTU’s workshare. MTU’s role in the engine to power the Airbus A380 mega-transport amounts to 22.5%. MTU partners with General Electric and Pratt & Whitney in the emerging GP7000.
Germany’s leading engine manufacturer, MTU, is responsible for the production of the GP7000 high-pressure turbine as well as for the development and production of the low-pressure turbine and turbine center frame. The GP7000 will be the Munich/Germany-based engine manufacturer’s most substantial civil engine program in the years ahead. The Dutch seal specialist Eldim will produce the seal rings for the GP7000’s six-stage low-pressure turbine. The partnership agreement also provides for strategic co-operation in the development of turbine seals and the exchange of know-how. Effective immediately, Eldim shares in the development of GP7000 components and makes the respective parts available. The GP7000 will have its first run in February 2004 and enter service on the A380 in 2006.
MTU Aero Engines president and CEO Dr. Klaus Steffens noted that this was “the first time in MTU’s history of civil engine construction that we concluded an agreement of this sort. For us, it’s a trailblazer helping us to achieve maximum economy with the new program. We expect to enter into similar partnership agreements also on other programs.”
Sulzer Metco division president Eduard Rikli said: “This agreement substantiates our intention to enhance co-operation with engine and gas turbine customers through strategic partnerships. We take pride in contributing under this engine program.”
Taken across its affiliates, MTU Aero Engines has a workforce of about 7800 people. It is the world’s fifth-largest engine maker and the biggest provider of independent commercial engine services worldwide. Having established leading positions technologically, the company recently was awarded the German Industry’s Innovation Prize in recognition of its newly developed high-pressure compressor for the PW6000 to power Airbus Industrie’s smallest narrow-body, the A318.
Eldim is headquartered near the Netherland’s Venlo and is part of Sulzer Metco, a division of Sulzer Ltd, Winterthur, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1970, its specialty being high- and low-pressure seals. It also does unconventional machining of rotor blades and stator vanes and advanced coating for aircraft engines and industrial gas turbines. Eldim has a workforce of 400 employees.
About Sulzer Corporation
The Sulzer Corporation is comprised of the four core divisions Sulzer Metco (surface engineering solutions and services), Sulzer Turbomachinery Services, Sulzer Pumps (including services), Sulzer Chemtech (chemical process components and services), and the venture division Sulzer Hexis (fuel cell systems). Sales by the core divisions in 2001 totaled CHF 1875 million. The Sulzer Corporation currently employs more than 9000 people worldwide.
