Product Description

The Cummins NHRT-6 is a turbocharged inline-six industrial diesel engine in the Cummins NH / NT big-cam family — allegedly produced from the 1950s through the 1970s for stationary industrial service (compressor stations, oilfield drilling, mine haulage, standby power), marine auxiliary and workboat propulsion, and on-highway heavy trucking. The N-series designation covers the 855-cubic-inch inline-six architecture that became the backbone of Cummins’s post-WWII industrial engine line, and the RT turbocharged variants were rated for continuous-duty service in exhaust-hot installations across the U.S. industrial and marine sectors.

Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Cummins NHRT-6 industrial diesel engines were sealed and heat-shielded with asbestos-containing materials at the following documented product joints:

  • Exhaust-manifold-to-cylinder-head flange gaskets — compressed chrysotile-asbestos sheet gaskets or metal-clad asbestos-composite gaskets at every exhaust port between the NH-series head and the cast exhaust manifold
  • Turbocharger inlet and outlet flange gaskets — asbestos-composite gaskets at the turbocharger hot-side inlet flange, cold-side outlet, and oil-drain return flange
  • Exhaust-elbow, downpipe, and expansion-joint gaskets — asbestos-sheet gaskets at exhaust-piping flange joints downstream of the turbo
  • Asbestos-fabric heat-shield wrap — asbestos-cloth wrap and asbestos-blanket heat shielding on the NHRT-6 hot exhaust manifold and turbo housing in enclosed engine rooms, generator rooms, and marine engine compartments
  • Asbestos packing at engine service connections — cooling-water, lube-oil, and exhaust-mounting hardware sealing at flange joints

Cummins NH-series industrial and marine diesel engines were routinely scraped, re-gasketed, and re-wrapped during periodic top-end overhaul, valve adjustment, and turbocharger replacement by industrial diesel mechanics, powerhouse enginemen, standby-generator technicians, and marine engine crews. Gasket scraping, cutting new asbestos-sheet gaskets to shape, and stripping and re-wrapping asbestos heat-shield fabric on the hot manifold and turbo allegedly released respirable asbestos fibers into the mechanic’s breathing zone.

Cummins NHRT-6 industrial diesel engines have been named in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation as a product-vector exposure source for industrial diesel mechanics, powerhouse and standby-generator crews, and marine engineers.

Workers Exposed

  • Industrial diesel mechanics performing top-end and turbo overhaul on Cummins NH-series engines in compressor stations, oilfield service, mine haulage, and process-plant standby power
  • Powerhouse enginemen operating and maintaining Cummins NHRT-6 stationary units in industrial and utility standby generator installations
  • Marine engine mechanics working NHRT-6 auxiliary and propulsion installations aboard tugs, workboats, dredges, and inland marine vessels
  • Standby generator technicians servicing Cummins NH-series diesel gensets in hospitals, telecom, and continuous-process industrial sites
  • Pipefitters working exhaust-piping flange joints downstream of the NH-series turbo
  • Insulators installing and stripping asbestos-fabric heat-shield wrap on the NHRT-6 hot exhaust manifold and turbocharger housing