Mobile-Menu

Wind Turbines Compact Despite High Performance Thanks to Plain Bearings

From Flender | Translated by AI 5 min Reading Time

Related Vendor

FAULHABER Drive Systems

Wind turbines are expected to deliver more and more power. At the same time, the nacelles must remain transportable on the road and must therefore not become too large. Plain bearings can solve this conflict of objectives in certain cases.

Conflicting design objectives: On the one hand, gearboxes in wind turbines should deliver more and more power, but on the other hand they must not become larger so that they can be transported cost-effectively.(Image: Flender)
Conflicting design objectives: On the one hand, gearboxes in wind turbines should deliver more and more power, but on the other hand they must not become larger so that they can be transported cost-effectively.
(Image: Flender)

The global expansion of wind energy is driving the technical development of wind turbines at a rapid pace. Turbines are growing in performance and dimensions, while at the same time the requirements for efficiency, availability and cost-effectiveness are increasing. Particularly in the megawatt and multi-megawatt range, designers are faced with a conflict of objectives: more power is to be realized in ever more compact nacelles in order to keep transport, assembly and operation economical. Despite higher torques, the components still have to fit under bridges, for example. The drive technology in the tower head plays a central role here—especially the gearbox and its bearings. Manufacturers such as Flender with its Winergy wind brand are responding to this trend with drive concepts with high torque density and power density. This is accompanied by significantly higher demands on the bearing technology; plain bearings are becoming increasingly important.

Related content