CUMMINS Power Systems For Sale

About Cummins

Best known for its diesel engines, large and small, Cummins Inc. is also a leading provider of generator sets around the world. Business partners Clessie Cummins and William G. Irwin, a banker, started the company in February 1919 to develop German inventor Rudolf Diesel’s fuel-efficient engine of the same name. The firm started off in a former warehouse in Columbus, Indiana, with just four employees.

The Model F in 1924, 1928’s Model U, and the Model K in 1929 helped to popularize the diesel engine in North America, but it was 1932’s Model H, or H672, that put Cummins diesel engines in commercial trucking to stay.

After the United States entered World War II, Clessie Cummins led the Internal Combustion Engine section of the U.S. War Production Board. In 1956 and 1959, his company expanded overseas with plants in Scotland and Brazil. Cummins also partnered with Komatsu in Japan and Kirloskar in India in 1962.

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2019 Cummins 500DFEK stationary generator

Generators

In 1986, Cummins entered the power generation market by purchasing a 63% stake in generator set, control, and switchgear maker Onan Corporation. The Minneapolis company had built the first recreational vehicle genset in 1961. Onan had just purchased alternator manufacturer Newage AvK of Stamford, UK, two years prior, making Cummins the majority owner of Newage, as well. Cummins completed the acquisition of Onan in 1992. In October 1995, Cummins shipped its one-millionth generator set for the RV sector.

In 1998, Cummins Power Generation (as it was called then) consolidated all of its products into its factory in Fridley, Minnesota. The new 16-cylinder QSK60 and 12-cylinder QSK45 engines opened new opportunities in the power generation segment of the company. The following year, Cummins started a two-decade stint in the mobile generator rental business.

A New Millennium

In 2007, Cummins contracted with the U.S. Department of Defense to supply AMMPS (Advanced Medium Mobile Power Source) generators to troops on deployment. These machines were designed to power telephones, TVs, and air conditioners for American forces overseas.

In 2010, Cummins chartered its Genset Emulator Lab. This facility allowed engineers to test virtual engines and generators in a wide range of scenarios.

Cummins broke a power record in 2011 with its new C3000 Series generator sets, capable of producing up to 3.5 megawatts. The C3000 Series, using Cummins’ 4,000-horsepower (2,983-kilowatt), 95-liter QSK95 engine, was the most powerful high-speed diesel genset around.

In 2013, the company entered the market for home and small business standby generators with the QuietConnect line.

In 2016, Cummins’ Power Generation and High Horsepower area combined into the new Cummins Power Systems segment.

Cummins redesigned its QuietConnect gensets in 2017 with remote monitoring capability. The company also sold its fleet of mobile rental generator sets to United Rentals Power & HVAC of Stamford, Connecticut.

In 2018, Cummins manufactured its 25,000th AMMPS unit at the Fridley, Minnesota, factory.

Cummins Today

Today, Cummins employs more than 62,000 people around the world. It serves customers in more than 190 countries and territories through approximately 600 wholly owned and independent distributor locations. Its dealer network has approximately 7,600 locations.

Still headquartered in Columbus, Indiana, after a century, Cummins also has Power Systems manufacturing facilities in Elkhart and Seymour, Indiana; Fridley, Minnesota; and Clovis, New Mexico. Outside the United States, the Power Systems section has factories in the UK, Brazil, India, China, Mexico, Romania, and Nigeria.

Cummins Generators

Cummins’ standby and prime power genset range features primarily stationary models, but also some towable marine and home standby generators. They cover an extremely broad range of power levels from 2 kilowatts to 3.5 megawatts. The company fields single-phase and triple-phase power in virtually any voltage level.

Cummins breaks down its vast product line into market segments. For example, the commercial industrial line is aimed at utility peak shaving/peak lopping, DG (distributed generation), and plant power management. Its high-horsepower commercial industrial counterpart handles applications above 1 megawatt.

The company also sells a commercial mobile line of generators for fire and emergency applications, as well as power units for data centers and telecom systems, home and small business standby needs, RVs and marine applications, and the rental sector.

Alternative Fuels, Hybrids & Electric

Cummins manufactures not only the engines used in many of its gensets, but also the alternator/generator products (under the Stamford, AvK, and Markon brands) and PowerCommand control systems for each, as well. The company also uses engines from Ford and GM in some applications.

The main fuel options for Cummins gensets include diesel, natural gas, LPG, and gasoline, but the firm also makes alternative-fuel solutions that run on methane from landfill solid wastes, municipal sewage digesters, agricultural wastes (biogas), or coal seam deposits. Cummins also provides systems that run on flare gas and vapors from oil exploration, or diesel mixed with organic oils and fats (biodiesel).

Besides generators to turn kinetic energy into electricity, Cummins has been investing in electric vehicle technology to do just the opposite. In 2012, the company’s Cummins Motor Generator with CorePlus Technology sought to hybridize medium and heavy trucks by adding an electric motor between the engine and transmission. In 2017 and 2018, Cummins acquired Johnson Matthey Battery Systems of the UK and Brammo of Talent, Oregon, both of which manufacture batteries for electric vehicles. Cummins also acquired fully electric and four-mode hybrid powertrain technology from EDI (Efficient Drivetrains) of Milpitas, California.

Find The Right Cummins

Browse PowerSystemsToday.com for a selection of new and used Cummins, Onan, AvK, and Newage generators for sale. You’ll regularly find 300 KW, 500 KW, KTA50, KTA38, QST30, QSK60, and VTA28 models for sale on the site, to name just a few.