Over the past year, we’ve seen a steady uptick in demand for our marine products. Both product lines – power electronics and electrical machines – have received many new orders, with the increase in power electronics sales especially noticeable.
This, of course, creates a positive problem: how are we going to produce everything?
Until recently, all our products have been manufactured in Vaasa and Lappeenranta, Finland, or in Stord, Norway. Our excellent 10-year partner NanJing Changfeng (NJCF) of China supplies the main components for our European electrical machines production sites.
To efficiently meet growing customer demand, we are streamlining logistics and building new production space. Expansion and improvements are already underway.
Expanding power electronics production and testing
Currently, all production and testing of power electronics (PE) is in Stord. This includes our
- DC-Hubs
- Single drives
- Power modules
The factory in Stord has been under great pressure this past year because of the large number of orders. Testing is the tricky part because tests of our DC-Hubs take a lot of time.
Stord has managed to keep up with production by increasing the number of personnel and subcontracting subassemblies and building blocks, but we expect to nearly triple our power electronics business by the end of 2026.
Because production in Stord cannot be scaled up without limit, we need a second location for in-house building block production, final assembly of single drives and DC-Hubs and testing of final products. Two manufacturing locations will also give us better redundancy.
We’ve decided to add PE production and testing to our Vaasa factory and are already moving forward on this. Production possibilities already exist there, personnel is available, and a large part of our engineering is located nearby. We will have the same production and testing possibilities in both the Stord and Vaasa factories.
Our first step has been to build testing facilities at the Vaasa factory. Testing, especially of DC-Hubs, can be technically demanding and time consuming. Tests can take several weeks, including internal testing and FAT tests witnessed by classification societies and end customers.
Secondly, we are setting up production and project delivery capabilities, which will be ready by early 2025.
All this will greatly increase our production and delivery of power electronics.
Meeting increasing marine electrical machine sales
Marine electrical machine sales have also been increasing. These include permanent magnet shaft generators and machines for electric propulsion.
Until now, these machines have been built at the Lappeenranta and Vaasa factories. Because Vaasa is becoming the second center for our power electronics production, we cannot increase machine production there.
Going forward, the Lappeenranta factory will focus on large PMM2000M marine machine production, and the Vaasa factory will build our small PMM1000M machines. PMM1500M will be built at both factories, with the greatest volume in Lappeenranta.
Expanding production to China
In addition, we plan to expand our cooperation with NJCF to build complete electrical machines in China – and widen our shaft generator product range there. So far, we have only produced PMM2000M generators, and they have been tested as single machines. The PMM1000M and PMM1500M will follow in 2025.
Expanding our product range to include smaller sizes will offer a wider range of power and torque for almost any kind of vessel where shaft generators can be utilized. Typical applications are large container vessels or different kinds of bulk carriers, and the needed power varies a lot.
Simultaneously, we are expanding our testing capabilities in China with full-load test systems for all sizes. NJCF has already increased the size of the testing area to accommodate the needed equipment.
These China-made products will go directly to Chinese shipyards and can be exported to other countries in the future. This avoids the long and quite expensive transportation between China and Finland, further increasing our production capacity.
Guaranteeing production quality
We are producing identical machines in Finland and in China. NJCF uses modern ISO quality management systems. Our partner and their suppliers use the same documentation and the same inspection procedures we use in Finland, and all machines are tested before delivery.
A team from The Switch is present at the factory at all times to handle questions and quality inspections for the processes and products.
Rotor manufacturing
Lastly, we are in the long run consolidating all rotor manufacturing for wind to Lappeenranta. This is necessary to make room for power electronic production at the Vaasa factory.
Wind rotors have been manufactured also earlier in Lappeenranta, and all the equipment for rotor manufacturing already exists there. We will be moving the bearing assembly first and the whole rotor assembly later.
Contributing to marine industry solutions
All these improvements will allow us to produce a wider range of products more efficiently and with increased redundancy.
We are excited to be part of the solution to today’s marine needs!
Chief Operations Officer
Matti Nikkinen
Matti Nikkinen currently works as Chief Operations Officer at The Switch. He has over three decades of experience in R&D, product development and factory operations in various industries, and his main responsibilities focus on the operations of all The Switch manufacturing sites. Nikkinen holds M.Sc. (Technology) degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), Finland.