Cummins Inc.’s diesel engines hold world records. In the 1960s, the power systems and components supplier fitted a Los Angeles Fire Department boat to pump 9,000 gallons of water per minute. Cummins engines powered the biggest forklift truck ever built, the world’s most powerful pipelayer in Siberia, John Deere’s largest forage harvester, and the longest road train at 3,340 feet with 79 trailers.
With financial backing and a garage space from Banker William G. Irwin, Clessie Cummins founded Cummins Engine Company in Columbus, Indiana, in 1919. Seven years later, the company released its first piece of mobile equipment: the 104 Power Shovel from Northwest Engineering, one of the first earth movers not powered by steam.
Starting to move toward automotive power by launching the Model U engine in 1928, three years later, Cummins Inc. broke a record at the Indy 500. Not only did the company power the first diesel racecar to drive over 100 miles per hour, but the racecar was so fuel efficient that it didn’t once need to pull off the track for a pit stop. Cummins’ No. 61 Green Hornet would break another Indy 500 record in 1950 as the world’s fastest diesel at 165 miles per hour.
Cummins broke the record for fastest coast-to-coast driving time from New York to Los Angeles in 1931: 3,214 miles in 97 hours and only $11.22 spent on fuel. This proved that, not only were diesel engines fast, but there were economic benefits over gasoline. The Cummins Model A soon became popular as the world’s first light diesel engine designed for a car.
Cummins bought Onan Corporation in 1992. Founded by D.W. Onan, who started building generators out of his home in 1920, the company made and shipped 139 gensets to the Frank Motorhome Company in the 1960s. These were the first generators adapted for RV use, which would later support Cummins’ goal of becoming a world leader in power generation equipment. By the turn of the century, Cummins would launch its own generator rental business after shipping one million RV generator sets a few years earlier.
In the late 1980s, Dodge Ram started using the Cummins Turbo Diesel. This propelled Cummins into the pickup truck market, and the company powered its millionth Ram engine in 2003. By 2005, the company’s overall international sales surpassed those in the United States.
Since the 1980s, Cummins has developed different subsects of the company, like Cummins Electric Company, responsible for electronic engine control software, sensors and tools. The Cummins Emission Solution started in 2001 to focus on aftertreatment solutions and help engines meet future regulations. By 2012, the company had launched Cummins Technical Education for Communities to provide industry-supported skills training to disadvantaged youth around the world.
Today, Cummins employs more than 61,000 and serves around 190 countries around the world. Their most recent success was 2015’s QSK95 engine with more than 4,000 horsepower, the world’s most powerful high-speed diesel engine.
