Environmental Engineering Reference
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We defined the capacity and the exterior design, and the gear
factories would then shape the gears according to the specific
needs of our wind turbines, as if they were cutting butter. In that
way we gained access to gear design engineers in Finland and
Germany, who possessed a degree of experience with construction,
which did not exist in Denmark.
Figure 7.39
Folkecenter-designed Hanstholm 525 kW wind turbine, in
operation since 1992, placed on the beach (left) and the wind
turbine's integrated Tacke gear (right).
The manufacturers delivered gears to the entire windmill
industry. We met several gear designers that shook their heads
discretely at the way the Danish manufacturers pieced wind
turbines together on a long, costly base frame. In particular, they
did not understand the argument that it must be possible to replace
the gear easily.
“Everywhere where we provide gears, for ships, for locomotives,
we make them in a manner that they will last until all the rest is
worn out,” they said. “Can you really not aford to make such sturdy
gears that they will last for as long as the wind turbine?” So, once
again, it was the ever-ongoing issue of the under-dimensioned,
vulnerable wind turbine gears that continued to ruin manufacturers
and owners of windmills.
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