VULKAN Group

VULKAN Group is a German drive-technology company headquartered in Herne and owned by the Hackforth family. Its business units cover marine, industry and energy, and refrigeration and air conditioning.

In marine propulsion, VULKAN is a major supplier of highly flexible couplings, drive shafts and resilient mounts for main propulsion and generator sets. Its coupling families are RATO (S/S+, DS/DS+, R/R+ and DG/DG+), VULASTIK (L and XT), TORFLEX (including DX), MEGIFLEX (B, BT and TC) and PROPFLEX (N, S and T) for propeller shafts. These couplings control torsional vibration and allow for misalignment between engines, gearboxes and shafting. Resilient mounts isolate engine and genset vibration and structure-borne noise.

Through VULKAN Hybrid and Electric Solutions, based in Genoa, Italy, where it runs a laboratory and test bench, the group develops hybrid and electric drive systems tailored to specific ship types. Its markets include deep-sea merchant ships, cruise ships, naval vessels, tugs and yachts.