“The workshop was a success. All the
main offshore ship propulsion suppliers/
manufacturers attended the workshop,”
says Halme.
GET THE IDEAS FLOWING
ATA Gears was one of the companies
invited by Wärtsilä to join the project.
Gábor Szánti, ATA Gears’ Engineering
“
The INSIDER INSIGHTS
workshop track record of cooperating with the local
was a success.
Tampere-based ATA Gears has also a long
Tampere University of Technology. “Profes-
sor Arto Lehtovaara and his team brought
a lot of expertise and insight into this pro-
ject,” Szánti says.
“When there’s a lot of different,
motivated players from the same industry
and Development Manager, says that the joining up, it’s normally a project that has
company was excited to participate in the the potential to push the entire industry
forward,” he adds.
venture.
“Wärtsilä is our important customer respected research institutes and compa- and we were truly amazed to learn about nies invited by VTT and Wärtsilä, forming a their massive investment in Tuusula test research ecosystem around thruster devel- VTT and Wärtsilä coordinated the ArTEco
facility. We did not have to think twice opment. project, in which the following organi-
when we were invited to participate, as “We found ourselves among experts sations were also involved: ATA Gears,
this has been a unique opportunity to of hydraulic machinery, power electronics, Katsa, the Finnish Transport Safety Agency,
demonstrate our best technologies in a sensor technology, in addition to the fields Tampere University of Technology, SKF,
very well controlled full scale thruster envi- more closely related to gears: metallurgy, TU Luleå, Klingelnberg and TU Dres-
ronment,” says Szánti, who was the pro- contact mechanics, tribology and dynam- den. The main funders of the project
ject manager from ATA Gears side. ics. This multidisciplinary approach cre- are Business Finland in Finland, Sjöfarts-
ated synergies for all participants,” Szánti verket in Sweden and state funding in
QUEST FOR SYNERGIES believes. Especially fruitful was the inter- Germany. The project is part of the Euro-
The expectations were also met as ATA national dialogue with the researchers of pean MARTEC II (Maritime Technologies
Gears worked together with experts of Dresden University of Technology. as an ERA-NET). n
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