INDUSTRY TEAMINGS

05 Sep 07. AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, is ready to become the future strategic partner of PZL-Swidnik, and to invest in the capital of the company, should the Polish Authorities confirm their intention to privatise the company. AgustaWestland investment in PZL-Swidnik would enable the successful co-operation between the two companies over the last 11 years to be taken to the next level and provide PZL-Swidnik with long term growth opportunities. AgustaWestland has been working with PZL-Swidnik for over 11 years now and subject to the right conditions is ready to invest in PZL-Swidnik, considering the company’s capabilities and skills a good match with AgustaWestland strategic growth plans. AgustaWestland and PZL-Swidnik are very proud of their strong industrial co-operation that started in 1997, when PZL-Swidnik started out manufacturing AgustaWestland AW109 Power helicopter fuselages with a dedicated workforce of around 60 employees. Over the years, as a result of significant investment, this successful co-operation has grown to what we see today, with fuselage production of five AgustaWestland helicopter types in PZL-?widnik (AW109 Power, AW109 LUH, AW119 Ke, AW139 and Grand). As a result of the successful co-operation between AgustaWestland and PZL-Swidnik more than 1000 skilled direct and indirect workers are now employed on AgustaWestland programmes. After celebrating the delivery of the fuselage number 500 to AgustaWestland in June 2006, PZL-Swidnik has now delivered more than 650 fuselages with production running at a rate of 12 fuselages per month. The co-operation accounts for more than 30% of the company’s annual revenues and is forecast to grow further.

03 Sept 07. Converteam, the international developer of systems and customized solutions for the conversion of electrical energy and DCNS, Europe’s leading player on the world market for naval defense systems, are pleased to announce that they have entered into a cooperation agreement to jointly develop a new generation POD called INOVELIS. This new generation POD ‘an outboard propulsion solution placed under ship hull’ is based on a pump jet concept, which represents a real technological breakthrough, validated by tests.
INOVELISTM will bring significant advantages in terms of:
– simple technology (the pump jet concept has already been sea proven)
– availability and maintenance
– increased power, smaller size and reduced operating costs (fuel savings.)
“INOVELISTM combines the benefits of a totally new POD and of Converteam’s technologies such as induction motors and PWM electronic drives. The markets targeted by this new POD are cruise liners and ferries and certain heavy carriers such as container ships or LNG tankers” said Pierre Bastid, Converteam President & CEO.
Bernard Planchais, DCNS Executive Vice President & COO, added: “POD represents a strong innovation opportunity for civilian and military ships’ architecture and performance. Inovelis Pods will allow us to enrich our product offering and develop onto new markets beyond our traditional perimeter.”