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 …

Rebuilding a better gearbox

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Excerpt: With a background as a manufacturer of custom gears and replacement gearing for demanding applications, Xtek, Cincinnati, Ohio, can manufacture and repair gearboxes to meet or exceed original design specifications. The company says its engineers can provide a failure analysis, reverse engineer c …

Speed increasers for wind turbines

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Excerpt: Wind-turbine gearboxes from GE Drivetrains, Erie, Pa., span four designs that handle 1.4 to 2.9 MW. On the low end, for instance, the CP 1.8 is a one stage compound planetary with one stage parallel shaft. The high end uses a two planetary (2P) gear trains. Middle two units handle from 1.8 to 2. …

GE Drivetrain sets up shop in China

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Excerpt: GE Drivetrain Technologies, a unit of GE Transportation, and A-Power Energy Generation Systems in China have signed two letters of intent. One is to have GE Drivetrain Technologies supply A-Power, Beijing, with 2.7-MW wind-turbine gearboxes and a second establishes a Joint Venture partnership for a …

Direct drive turbine needs no gearbox

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Excerpt: Most utility-sized wind turbines use a costly speed increaser to drive a generator. Netherlands-based Emergya Wind Technologies (EWT) however, builds wind turbines based on a direct-drive (gearbox free) design. The company says its turbine offers improved performance and reliability over convent …

Gearbox breather needs less attention than conventional unit

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Excerpt: Water contamination causes big problems in hydraulic systems and gearbox machinery on wind turbines. A manufacturer of filtration equipment has developed the T.R.A.P. (Thermally reactive advanced protection) breather as a way to prevent moisture buildup in such equipment. "The unit works by remo …