The Switch, a power electronics provider for the marine industry, has won a contract to deliver the single drives for shaft generators that will be installed on four tankers under construction at Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry in Fujian Province.
The 113,600-dwt LNG dual-fuel Aframax vessels, designed by the Shanghai Ship Research and Design Institute (SDARI), are being built for UK-based shipowner Union Maritime and are slated for delivery in the first half of 2027. Swiss-based WinGD is the system integrator for the PTO system.
The Switch’s single drives will manage power output delivered from the ships’ two-stroke engines, ensuring the shaft generators operate as efficiently as possible, thereby helping to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.
Connecting shaft generators to a vessel’s AC system is just one use case for The Switch single drives. Others include propulsion (connecting various types of electric motors to the AC system), battery (connecting a battery pack to the AC system) and other green energy sources (connecting fuel cells/solar/wind or other DC sources to the AC system). Both inline and geared drive solutions are available, with PTI-PTO and PTI-PTO-PTH functionality and a power range from 800 A to 5,600 A.
The Switch power…