U.K. firm acquire Montreal gear manufacturer

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Excerpt: David Brown, a manufacturer of industrial gearing and support services, says it has acquired Montreal based industrial gear manufacturer Unigear Industries Inc. Unigear is a privately held business known for its high quality gears. With its flexibility, innovation, quality, and performance it ha …

Why gears fail and a few ideas for building better replacements

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Excerpt: Loads on wind turbine gearboxes are difficult to imagine and more so to quantify. Experience and software can provide some insight and solutions to designing better replacement gears. By: N.K. Chinnusamy, President of Excel Gear Inc. Gearboxes designed to acceptable and proven industrial st …

Gears & Gearboxes 101

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Excerpt: A gearbox is typically used in a wind turbine to increase rotational speed from a low-speed rotor to a higher speed electrical generator. A common ratio is about 90:1, with a rate 16.7 rpm input from the rotor to 1,500 rpm output for the generator. Some multimegawatt wind turbines have dispensed wit …

How state government and private investment can grow the wind industry

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Excerpt: Vela Gear Systems says it will be the cornerstone of Marion’s Green Technology Park, a newly formed cluster of sustainable businesses, comprised of three private companies and a business incubator. The real estate component of this opportunity is that the flagship business of this Green Tech P …

Air breathers let gearboxes breath without contaminating nacelles

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Excerpt: Conventional air breathers vent the enclosed air in gearboxes but often let oil drip onto nacelle floors. The Oilmiser Vapor Guard prevents such hazards by using a diffuser post inside a sealed aluminum containment chamber. Migrating vapors are dispersed by the diffuser post and condense back into l …

Gearbox rebuilder selects Wisconsin

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Excerpt: Three power transmission and wind energy veterans have banded together to create Gearbox Express, an independent business focusing on the repair and remanufacturing of wind-turbine gearboxes. Founding partners Bruce Neumiller, CEO, Brian Hastings, CFO, and Brian Halverson, COO, have a combined 4 …

U.K. firm acquires gearbox manufacturer

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Excerpt:   Industrial engineering group Clyde Blowers has agreed to acquire the wind gear manufacturer Moventas Wind Ltd and the industrial gear manufacturer Moventas Santasalo Ltd. Following the acquisition of the Moventas companies, Clyde Blowers, with its existing David Brown Gear Systems, wil …

Entrepreneur Proposes Wind-Turbine Gear Factory For Indiana

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Excerpt: You might think the U.S. has lots of gear-making capacity, so why would a start-up envision a factory capable of more of the same? The answer lies in the size of the gears planned by Vela Gear Systems CEO Noel Davis. Gears required in the wind industry can be in excess of 6 ft in diameter, while …

Gear software for design and analysis

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Excerpt:   Gear and gearbox manufacturer Excel has developed software that the company says quickly determines maximum product parameters for gears needed in various industries. The Excel-Lent software is said to save engineers a lot of time when designing pinion and gear or a gearbox. With mi …

Design firm awarded GL A-Design Assessment for 2 MW gearbox

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Excerpt: Drivetrain Analysis and Wind Turbine Lifecycle Engineering Company, Romax Technology has been awarded the GL Renewables (GL) A-Design Assessment for its new range of WT2000 licensed 2-MW gearboxes. This high level of certification means the gearbox design has passed the most stringent independen …