Aker Arctic Technology Oy (often shortened to Aker Arctic) is a Finnish engineering company that operates an ice model test basin in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

. In addition to ship model testing, the company offers various design, engineering and consulting services related to

icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...

s, other icegoing vessels and arctic offshore projects as well as full scale trials, field expeditions and training for icy conditions. Formerly the arctic research centre of

Wärtsilä Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish corporation, Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the Marine propulsion, marine and energy markets. The core ...

and later Masa-Yards, Aker Arctic was established on 30 December 2004 as an independent company. Its current owners are the Finnish Industry Investment and

ABB ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Excha ...

. Aker Arctic and its predecessors have designed more than half of the world's icebreakers.Company
. Aker Arctic. In addition, the company is responsible for a number of recent inventions in the design of icegoing ships, such as the

double acting ship A double acting ship is a type of icebreaking ship designed to travel forwards in open water and thin ice, but turn around and proceed astern (backwards) in heavy ice conditions. In this way, the ship can operate independently in severe ice cond ...

and

oblique icebreaker An oblique icebreaker is a special type of icebreaker designed to operate not only ahead and astern, but also obliquely (sideways) with a large angle of attack. In this way, a relatively small icebreaker is capable of opening a wide channel in ic ...

concepts.Juurmaa, K et al.
New ice breaking tanker concept for the arctic (DAT)
. Kvaerner Masa-Yards Arctic Technology, 1995.Juurmaa, K et al.: The development of the new double acting ships for ice operation. Kvaerner Masa-Yards Arctic Technology
2001
an
2002
.

History

Polaris underway in Gulf of Bothnia near Rahja 23 April 2019

The history of ice model testing in Finland began when Wärtsilä Icebreaking Model Basin (WIMB) was opened in a converted air raid shelter in Helsinki in 1969. The second ice test basin in the world, preceded by and modeled after the 1955-built Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, was a result of co-operation between Wärtsilä and Esso International, initially created for developing the hull form of the icebreaking oil tanker SS ''Manhattan''. Later Wärtsilä, already an experienced and widely recognized builder of icebreaking ships, utilized the test basin for its own projects at a time when

Helsinki New Shipyard Hietalahti shipyard (also known as Helsinki New Shipyard, ) is a shipyard in Hietalahti, Helsinki, Hietalahti, in downtown Helsinki, Finland. Since 2019, it has been operated by a company named Helsinki Shipyard (company), Helsinki Shipyard. H ...

was continuously building new icebreakers.History
. Aker Arctic. In the early 1980s, a decision was made to construct a new model test facility above ground.Wilkman, Göran (2009), ''40 years of ice model testing'', Aker Arctic, Helsinki, Finland. Wärtsilä Arctic Research Centre (WARC), inaugurated in February 1983, was intended to become the leading ice model test facility in the world. The model basin measuring in length utilized a new type of inhouse-developed fine-grained model ice which was later licensed to Krylov Shipbuilding Research Institute (KSRI) in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and the ice model basin at the

Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki University of Technology (TKK; ; , HUT in international usage) was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the Helsinki metropolitan area, and it was one of the three universities from which the modern d ...

in Finland. In the mid-1980s, WARC also took over the responsibilities of Wärtsilä Arctic Design and Marketing (WADAM), a separate department which offered design and consultancy services to outside clients. In addition to inhouse R&D and commercial projects, the work carried out by WARC included basic research conducted by post-graduate students and research for the Finnish government. The work setup continued until the bankruptcy of

Wärtsilä Marine Wärtsilä Marine (; ) was a Finland, Finnish shipbuilding company. The company was created in 1987 in order to improve shipbuilding productivity by combining the Wärtsilä and Valmet yards under the same organisation. The yards were located in ...

in 1989. When Masa-Yards took over the shipbuilding business of Wärtsilä in 1989, WARC became known as Masa-Yards Arctic Research Centre (MARC). Although initially scientific projects gained high priority, from 1990 on the work was primarily commercial. When

Kværner Kværner was a Norwegian engineering and construction services company that existed between 1853 and 2005. During its initial decades, the firm was involved in the manufacture of cast iron stoves and hydroelectric turbines. The turbine busi ...

, the owner of Masa-Yards since 1991, merged with its rival company

Aker ASA Aker ASA is a Norway, Norwegian industrial investment company with ownership interests concentrated in oil and gas, renewable energy and green technologies, industrial software, seafood and marine biotechnology sectors. The company is listed on ...

and withdrew from the shipbuilding business in the early 2000s, it was decided to establish a new company to separate the arctic research department from the turbulent shipbuilding business. In addition, as the land lease agreement was reaching its end, a decision was made to construct a new model test facility elsewhere. Aker Arctic Technology Oy was established on 30 December 2004 with Kværner Masa-Yards (later

STX Finland STX Finland Oy, formerly Aker Yards Oy, was a Finnish shipbuilding company operating three shipyards in Finland, in Turku, Helsinki and Rauma, employing some 2,500 people. It was part of STX Europe, a group of international shipbuilding compani ...

) as its major shareholder and ABB, Aker Kværner (later Aker Solutions) and Wärtsilä as minor shareholders. Wärtsilä later withdrew from the joint company and sold its shares to the other shareholders. The construction of the new model test facility with a model basin began in

Vuosaari Vuosaari () is a Subdivisions of Helsinki#Neighbourhoods, neighbourhood in the city of Helsinki, Finland. It is located by the sea in East Helsinki and with its area of is geographically the largest district in the city. It also has two Helsi ...

, near the old shipyard, in 2005 and Aker Arctic moved to its current premises in February 2006. On 17 December 2013, the state-owned

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

Finnish Industry Investment (Suomen Teollisuussijoitus; Tesi) purchased 66.4% of Aker Arctic's shares from STX Finland which previously owned 71.4% of the company. The remainder was divided equally between then minor shareholders, ABB and Aker Solutions, who both increased their share from 14.3% to 16.8%.Valtio hankki omistukseensa enemmistön arktisesta erityisosaajasta Aker Arcticista
. Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy, 17 December 2013. According to the Minister of Economic Affairs Jan Vapaavuori, the company was acquired in order to prevent it from being sold to a foreign owner and as part of a funding arrangement for STX Finland. During its time as an independent company, Aker Arctic has acquired two other companies: the Canada-based consulting company AKAC in 2015 and the Finnish ship design and engineering company Bluetech Finland in 2025.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Engineering companies of Finland Shipbuilding companies of Finland Companies based in Helsinki