Product Description
Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that the Cummins Engine Company NHRT-6 inline-six industrial diesel — a workhorse platform installed in stationary generator sets, workboat propulsion, oilfield service rigs, and off-highway equipment from the 1950s through the 1980s — was originally shipped with, and serviced using, compressed asbestos-fiber sheet gaskets at every hot-side sealing interface. Litigation records describe alleged chrysotile-bearing gasket material at the exhaust manifold-to-head flange, at the turbocharger mounting pad, at the intake crossover, and at the water-jacketed exhaust elbow used on marine and generator installations.
Because the NHRT-6 ran at high exhaust-gas temperatures and vibrated at the flange faces, the original gaskets allegedly baked onto the mating surfaces and had to be chiseled, scraped, or wire-wheeled off during every top-end rebuild — the mechanism by which workers allegedly inhaled respirable asbestos fiber released from the aged gasket matrix.
Workers Exposed
- Diesel mechanics rebuilding NHRT-6 top ends in truck shops, generator-service shops, and marine yards
- Marine engineers on tugs, workboats, and small commercial vessels where the NHRT-6 or its close cousins served as main propulsion or ship-service generator prime movers
- Powerhouse and standby-generator operators at hospitals, telecom sites, refineries, and municipal water plants where NHRT-6 gensets provided emergency power
- Oilfield pumpers and rig hands operating and maintaining NHRT-6-powered drilling and workover equipment
- Pipefitters and millwrights removing and reinstalling exhaust piping, turbochargers, and manifolds during scheduled overhauls