Product Description

Cummins Engine Company (Columbus, Indiana — founded 1919; today Cummins Inc.) is the dominant U.S. manufacturer of heavy-duty diesel engines used in Class-8 trucks, construction and mining equipment, marine propulsion and auxiliary sets, locomotive prime movers, stationary generators, and industrial power packages. Cummins engines — including the NH, NT, K-series, L-series, and V-series — dominated the U.S. heavy-duty diesel market through the asbestos era.

Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Cummins diesel engine cylinder head gaskets, exhaust manifold gaskets, water pump gaskets, and related sealing gaskets contained asbestos as a heat- and combustion-resistant sealing material through the documented era, and that diesel, truck, marine, and heavy-equipment mechanics who serviced Cummins engines were exposed to airborne asbestos fibers.

Head-gasket replacement is among the highest-fiber-release mechanic-trade tasks in the documented litigation record: the baked-on gasket residue must be scraped from the block deck and cylinder head with a razor, dry-wire-brushed, or ground with an abrasive wheel — each of which releases respirable fibers from the deteriorated asbestos gasket material into the mechanic’s breathing zone.

Cummins Engine Company has been named as a Manufacturer Defendant in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation.

Workers Exposed

  • Diesel mechanics performing in-frame and out-of-frame Cummins engine rebuilds — head-gasket replacement, exhaust manifold service, water pump replacement
  • Heavy-equipment mechanics servicing Cummins-powered construction, mining, and off-road equipment
  • Class-8 truck mechanics at dealership service bays and fleet shops
  • Marine engine mechanics servicing Cummins marine propulsion and auxiliary engines
  • Locomotive mechanics servicing Cummins-powered switch and yard locomotives
  • Stationary-engine mechanics servicing Cummins gensets and industrial power units
  • Cummins dealership and distributor service technicians