A team of Nidec ASI technicians at the Port of Buenos Aires for motor maintenance and sea trials of the Ship Amerigo Vespucci
The Made in Italy ambassador sailing vessel in the world has an electric propulsion heart by Nidec ASI
Milan, 9 April 2024 – The history of Nidec ASI, part of the Nidec Group’s Motion & Energy Division, has long been connected with that of the Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian Navy’s training ship, which has sailed the seas for more than 93 years as an ambassador of Made in Italy in the world.
The vessel, one of the largest in existence today, set sail from the Port of Genoa in 2023 to circle the globe for the second time since its launch, with Livorno Naval Academy cadets on board. At the heart of the ship beats a special Nidec ASI electric propulsion motor, made in the Monfalcone plant, and legendarily nicknamed ‘Aliseo’ by the crew in reference to the typical challenges of sailing caused by the Atlantic Ocean’s high winds.
Nidec’s asynchronous motor with dual active parts is a truly unique design, guaranteeing maximum reliability while minimizing its acoustic impact, with the aim of guaranteeing sailing with only the rumble of the wind between the sails. Even the variable frequency drives (VFDs) powering the propulsion motor are signed Nidec ASI and developed in the Cinisello Balsamo plant.
The ‘Lady of the Seas’ is scheduled to return to Italy in February 2025 and will be berthed again in the port of La Spezia. In the meantime, among the 31 stopovers planned during the circumnavigation in 5 continents, a technical stop in La Plata, in the port of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has taken place in recent months for a maintenance operation that for the first time in history took place not in homeland.
A team of Nidec ASI technicians from Genoa, which is typically in charge of the Vespucci’s maintenance service project, and Monfalcone, which has expertise on motors for the maritime sector, flew to Buenos Aires at the beginning of January for scheduled maintenance on the ship’s MEP (Electric Propulsion Motor) and Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) and to conduct sea trials of the equipment, which were successfully completed on 5 March.
“Being part of the history of one of the world’s most beautiful sailing ships makes us extremely proud, testifying to the reliability of our power, control and safety systems for the maritime sector, which has also been recognized and reconfirmed by the Italian Navy over the course of this long-standing collaboration,” said Dominique Llonch, CEO of Nidec ASI.
“We have been taking care of the Amerigo Vespucci’s electrical heart for eight years now, and we are very satisfied with the extraordinary maintenance intervention that our technicians have carried out over the last three months in Argentina, which has seen them engage with their professionalism and expertise for the first time outside Italian territory,” adds Lorenzo Ghiara, Nidec ASI project manager. “We have already wished the entire crew good wind for the resumption of the voyage, looking forward to meeting up again around the world or in La Spezia.”
Nidec Nidec Industrial Solutions (NIS) is the commercial platform, led by Nidec Asi, offering complete, customized electrical systems for energy efficiency in all fields. Its target markets are petrochemical, traditional and renewable energy, steel, marine and industrial automation. The multinational company specializes in heavy-duty applications with electric motors and generators up to 65 MW power (87,000 hp), electronic power converters and inverters, automation and software for industrial processes, and the retrofitting of power plants and hydroelectric generators. In addition, the company has strong know-how in the field of integrated systems for the production and storage of electrical energy (i.e. BESS) from renewable sources and their integration into electricity grids, as well as in the design and implementation of infrastructures for recharging electrical machines. Nidec ASI is also able to offer optimized technologies for motor control and to develop automation solutions for specific applications, customized to the client’s needs.
Nidec ASI Press Office
Barabino & Partners
Fabrizio Grassi – [email protected]: +39 392 7392125
Giulia Cancellieri – [email protected]: +39 334 3970072