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A. H. Gears Ltd 9 Beasley Ave Auckland New Zealand |
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Windflow 500 Project A. H. Gears was ask to design and build a wind turbine gearbox for a Christchurch company Windflow Technology. The gearbox needed to have a 30:1 ratio and a design life of 20 years. Input power is 109,000 Nm at 48.2 Rpm and a max braking torque of 189,000 Nm. The final design incorporated 3 planetary stages and 1 parallel gear stage and the use of some very innovative designs. One is the torque limiting system designed by Geoff Henderson, Company Director of Windflow. It allows high loads cause by wind gusts to past thru the gearbox but without applying the loads to the gears and bearings. This allowed us to build a more compact gearbox with confident load data to design around. The following are some pictures of the gearbox at different stages, from design thru to final testing of the gearbox and nacelle. |