EMD & the unit injector

[filmteknik]

Does EMD still hold the patent rights to the unit injector (injector & pump in one)? If so then what is being used on those GE-supplied 645's with Polish crankcases used on the MP36's? Do they use genuine EMD parts?

BTW, were those crankcases the result of a contract with a low cost supplier to custom make these parts or is someone in Poland making their own knock-off 645's?

[M636C]

filmteknik,

EMD introduced the unit injector in 1937 with the original 567 engines. Even if they patented the principle then, the patent would no longer be valid. Other manufacturers, Caterpillar particularly, use unit injectors (not to EMD design).

The 645 F crankcases being built for GE are being built to a GE design and carry a GE warranty, regardless of where the fabrication takes place. Eastern Europe has the advantage of relatively low labour rates combined with a long history of technical work of this type, and was a comvenient place for these crankcases to be built.

The other parts in the engine presumably came from GE's stocks of EMD spare parts which they sell in competition to EMD's own spares. I don't know the intellectual property considerations, but I assume that in many cases, the GE parts are made to the same design and by the same sub contractors as the "original" EMD parts. In some cases "original" EMD parts may be used.

There are very few EMD 645 engines used in Eastern Europe, the former Yugoslavia having been the best customer. There would be little value in a Polish company building EMD 645 engines unless they had a reseller in the USA, which is of course the main market.

Peter