The Gearbox Standard for Windturbines gets an Upgrade

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Excerpt: The recently drafted ISO/IEC standard for wind-turbine gearboxes is significant for many reasons. First, several organizations collaborated to produce ANSI/AGMA/AWEA 6006-A03, which was adopted without change in 2005 as ISO 81400-4, an international standard. The new draft (IEC project 61400-4), exp …

Turbine drivetrain test lab goes to Clemson U

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Excerpt: DOE Secretary Steven Chu recently announced that Clemson University will receive up to $45 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the Stimulus bill) for a wind energy test facility that will enhance the performance, durability, and reliability of utility-scale wind turbines. The D …

High Precision Large Scale Gear Inspection

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Excerpt: With improved specifications and additional size availability, the new Leitz CMM from Hexagon Metrology Inc. is used for high precision inspection of extremely large components such as gears used in the windpower industry. Unlike some gear inspection products, the PMM-G does not require a rotary ta …

Modular bearing for planetary wind turbine gearboxes

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Excerpt: Bearing specialist NKE Austria has developed a modular bearing system for planetary gears in wind turbine gearboxes. The modular concept is based on single-row cylindrical roller bearings of the company’s RN range, which do not have an outer ring. These bearings are equipped with a one-piece solid …

How to Get Turbine Gears and Bearings to (Almost) Talk

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Excerpt: A gear manufacturer recently confided that a turbine OEM was asking for quotes to repair yaw gears that were failing after just five years in service. Although the mystery of the early failure has not yet been resolved, the tale says that despite centuries of experience with gear designs and materia …

Two-bladed Wind Turbine lets Rotor Teeter

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Excerpt: The two-bladed design, from Windflow Technology Ltd,  lets the turbine rotor teeter on a hinge. This teetering motion is linked to an asymmetric pitching mechanism of the turbine blades. Uneven wind gusts are passively absorbed, says the New Zealand-based company, thus reducing fatigue loads throug …

Yaw and pitch drives for wind turbines

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Excerpt: Series 700T slew drives from Bonfiglioli USA, Hebron, Kentucky, come in 13 sizes with output as high as 70,000 Nm thanks to planetary gearing with up to three stages. Output shaft with integral pinion rides on wide-span, high-load bearings. A robust housing features low or raised mounting flange. In …

Gearboxes for pitch drives

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Excerpt: Pitch drives are located at the base of turbine blades to turn them so they capture wind or let it pass. Limited space and reliability requirements have led Wittenstein, Bartlett, Ill, to develop the alpha TP+ and alpha SP+ drives for those applications and others. Adding sensors to the drive …

Think drop forging for large gear blanks

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Excerpt: Canton Drop Forge, Canton, Ohio, says it is a complete machine shop so it can meet all of a client’s forging needs, including die sinking. These capabilities, along with the skills of its personnel, ensure precision, consistency, and control of forging dies, all of which are instrumental i …

Website for those blue alpha gearboxes

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Excerpt: The company that designs and manufactures the blue alpha gearboxes, Wittenstein, Bartlett, Ill, has launched a new website, that it says better serves users and markets with an improved online feel. The company says the new website is phase 1 for improving its customer service to meet market’s …