Volvo Penta was founded as Penta in 1907 with the production of its first

marine engine An inboard motor is a marine propulsion system for boats. As opposed to an outboard motor where an engine is mounted outside the hull of the craft, an ''inboard motor'' is an engine enclosed within the hull of the boat, usually connected to a pr ...

, the B1. The Penta company soon became an established

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combus ...

manufacturer, which in 1927 delivered the engine for Volvo's first passenger car.

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

acquired Penta in 1935 and Volvo Penta has been part of the

Volvo Group The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

since then. It now provides

s (ICEs) and complete power systems to the marine industry, power-generating equipment, and similar industrial applications. The business also manufacturers

sterndrive A sterndrive or inboard/outboard drive (I/O) is a form of marine propulsion which combines inboard power with outboard drive. The engine sits just forward of the transom while the drive unit (outdrive or drive leg) lies outside the hull. Oper ...

and inboard drive systems such as the Volvo Penta IPS. The engine program comprises

petroleum fuel Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

(

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

and

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

) engines with power outputs of between .

History

In 1868, engineer Johan George Grönvall, also known as John G. Grönvall, founded a mechanical workshop and

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

Skövde Skövde () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and urban centre in Skövde Municipality and Västra Götaland County, in the Västergötland, Västergötland (Western Gothland region) in central Southern Sweden. Skövde is situated some 150 ...

, Sweden. The company became limited in 1875, known as ''Sköfde Gjuteri och Mekaniska Verkstad'' or simply ''Gjuteriet''. Products ranged from pots and vents to stoves and brewery equipment. Soon Gjuteriet also started manufacturing agricultural equipment and equipment for sawmills. The company expanded heavily in the early 1900s, and started producing

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

s and

water turbine A water turbine is a rotary machine that converts kinetic energy and potential energy of water into mechanical work. Water turbines were developed in the 19th century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. Now, ...

s for hydraulic power plants. In 1907, a very fruitful co-operation with the Stockholm-based engineering company ''Fritz Egnell'' began, with a one-cylinder 3 hp compression ignition engine. The engine was simply named ''B1'' - but a five-man committee was set to find a name that would catch on. The committee failed to agree on a catchy name, but because it had five members, settled for ''Penta''. In 1916, Egnell bought the company and the name changed to AB Pentaverken. Production was concentrated on engines, mostly for

maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prin ...

applications. The years immediately after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

were economically harsh, but a new product was introduced: a small two cylinder U2 outboard engine designed by Carl-Axel Skärlund. The U2 was slightly improved in 1926, and renamed U21 and remained in production until 1962. The U2/U21 was a great success and exported worldwide. In many countries, U21 is still synonymous with outboard engine. In 1925, Penta was approached by

Assar Gabrielsson Assar Thorvald Nathanael Gabrielsson (13 August 1891 – 28 May 1962) was a Swedish industrialist and co-founder of Volvo. Early life Gabrielsson was born on 13 August 1891 in Korsberga, Skaraborg County, Sweden, the son of Gabriel Nathanael ...

, the founder of Volvo, who needed an engine for the first Volvo automobile. Penta then designed the four cylinder 28 hp side valve ''Typ DA'' engine for the

Volvo ÖV 4 The Volvo ÖV 4 was the first car built by Volvo. The designation ÖV 4 stands for ''"Öppen Vagn 4 cylindrar"'' in Swedish, which means Open Carriage, 4 cylinders. The model ÖV 4 has later often been referred to as "Jakob" but that was just a na ...

. In 1935, Penta became a subsidiary of Volvo.

Current operations

Marine engines and complete marine propulsion systems

Volvo Penta has introduced several industry-first innovations to the marine engine market, including the

unit,

contra-rotating propellers Aircraft equipped with contra-rotating propellers, also referred to as CRP, coaxial contra-rotating propellers, or high-speed propellers, apply the maximum power of usually a single piston or turboprop engine to drive a pair of coaxial propell ...

Duoprop, and Forward Drive. In 2005, Volvo Penta launched the first IPS engine, a new "pod type" boat drive system with counter rotating forward-facing propellers operated by a joystick. Its engines are used by more than 140 boat manufacturers including

Fairline Boats Fairline Yachts is a British manufacturer of luxury motor yachts. Started in 1963 by Jack Newington, the company builds motor yachts in Oundle, Northamptonshire. History Newington family The company started when Newington bought a series o ...

, Sunseeker, Riviera, Four Winns, Sea Ray, Hanse, and Cranchi. In conjunction with Volvo owned

CPAC Systems CPAC may refer to: Conferences * Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservative activists in the United States, and/or associated activities in other countries * Castle Point Anime Convention, an annual anime conve ...

, Volvo Penta and

Yamaha Motor is a Japanese multinational manufacturer of motorcycles, marine products such as boats and outboard motors, and other motorized products. The company was established in 1955 upon separation from Yamaha Corporation (however, Yamaha Corporation ...

signed an agreement involving technological partnership in December 2010. Volvo Penta have a strong presence in the Marine Commercial segment, many passenger ferries, workboats, Military vessels,dive support vessels and fishing vessels utilise Volvo Penta engines for propulsion, power generation or auxiliary equipment such as bow thrusters. Most recently Volvo Penta has been the number one choice of propulsion and power generation for offshore wind farm vessels aka Crew transfer vessel (CTV). Operators can appreciate the reliability and performance from Volvo Penta engines and IPS propulsion systems. With ever demanding focus on reducing CO2 emissions, Volvo Penta have released to market a hybrid solution for the CTV market utilising electric motors mated to IPS drives.

Industrial engines

The company sells its engines to a variety of users, including many

generator Generator may refer to: * Signal generator, electronic devices that generate repeating or non-repeating electronic signals * Electric generator, a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. * Generator (circuit theory), an eleme ...

manufacturers such as Aggreko

Sdmo {{Short description, French manufacturer of generators Kohler SDMO is an industrial generator manufacturer which is a subsidiary of Kohler Company. It is based in Brest, specializing in the manufacturing of generating sets. SDMO is the leading man ...

, Genpower,

Kohler Kohler is a surname of German origin. The name was first found in Saxony. It means, "charcoal burner" so the first "Kohlers" were most likely of that occupation. Notable people with the surname include: *Alan Kohler, Australian journalist *Anton ...

and

Shanghai Dingxin Electric Group Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

. Its engines are also used in mining equipment and stone-crushing machinery.

Manufacturing bases

The company has a number of manufacturing bases for diesel engines at Vara, Sweden;

Lingang Nanhui New City () is a planned city located in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai, China. It was formerly called Lingang New City (临港新城) until it was renamed in April 2012. Construction began in 2003 and is scheduled to be completed in 20 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

; and Lexington, Tennessee,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, for all gasoline engines and

s. Volvo Penta operates worldwide and has around 4,000 dealers in 130 countries.

References

External links

Official Volvo Penta website
{{Authority control

Penta Penta may refer to: Places * , an Italian hamlet (') of Fisciano, Salerno * Penta-di-Casinca, a French municipality of Corsica * Penta, Chhattisgarh, a town in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, India * , a small river in Lithuania Other * Pent ...

Motor vehicle engine manufacturers Diesel engine manufacturers Marine engine manufacturers Gas engine manufacturers Electrical generation engine manufacturers Manufacturing companies established in 1868 Engine manufacturers of Sweden Swedish companies established in 1868