How much do you know about wind turbine bearing?

In recent years, wind power in emerging markets around the world has developed rapidly. Against the backdrop of national policy support and tight energy supply, China's wind power equipment manufacturing industry has risen rapidly, and the market demand for wind power equipment has grown rapidly, which has also driven the development of wind turbine bearings.
Bearings are the core components of wind turbines. Wind turbine bearings range from bearings used in blades, main shafts and yaws to high speed bearings used in gearboxes and generators
Main features of wind turbine bearings
1. Bad use environment.
2. High maintenance cost.
3. High requirement of service life.
Bearings for wind turbines mainly include yaw bearings, pitch bearings, spindle bearings, gearbox bearings, and generator bearings.
Generator bearing
Bearing type: deep groove ball bearings, angular contact bearings.
Working conditions: high speed (1000-1500rpm), high temperature (90-120 °C) heavy load.
Grease requirements: excellent shear stability, good oxidation stability, good wear resistance, excellent low temperature start-up performance.
Spindle bearing
Bearing type: tapered roller bearing, spherical bearing.
Working conditions: low speed (<25rpm), wide temperature range, heavy load, vibration, high humidity.
Grease requirements: excellent wear resistance, good oxidation stability, excellent low temperature start-up performance, good water resistance and so on.
Pitch/yaw bearing
Bearing type: four point contact ball bearing
Working conditions: wide temperature range, heavy load, vibration, high humidity.
Grease requirements: excellent corrosion resistance and wear resistance, excellent low temperature start-up performance, good water resistance, good oxidation stability, etc.
Each wind turbine equipment has 1 set of yaw bearing and 3 sets of pitch bearing (not equipped for the wind turbine below MW), 3 sets of generator bearings (deep groove ball bearings, cylindrical roller bearings), 2 sets of spindle bearings (spheroidal roller bearings), totally 9 sets.
In addition, there are also gearbox bearings. The gearbox has three structural forms. The first type requires 15 sets of bearings, the second type requires 18 sets of bearings, and the third form requires 23 sets of bearings. Thus, the average number of wind turbine bearings is 27 sets.
The structural forms of bearings for wind turbines mainly include four point contact ball bearings, cross roller bearings, cylindrical roller bearings, spherical roller bearings, and deep groove ball bearings. The yaw bearing is installed at the connection between the tower and the cockpit, and the pitch bearing is installed at the joint of the root of each blade and the hub.
Wind power bearing production process
1. Control the forging temperature.
2. Control the modulation process to ensure the mechanical properties.
3. Control the depth of the intermediate frequency quench hardened layer on the surface.
4. Avoid micro cracks on the surface.
The cleaning process of wind power bearing:
1. Inspection of forging blank
2. Rough turning
3. Finish turning
4. Molding finish turning
5. Heat treatment
6. Gear-hobbing and gear-milling processing
7. During drilling, according to customer requirements, it can be treated with blue, phosphating and vulcanization.
8. Rough grinding and fine grinding
9. Demagnetization, cleaning, assembly, surface coating, grease filling,packaging

Which type of bearing is less noisy?

The noise of bearing not only affects the bearing operation, but also brings a lot of trouble to the mechanical equipment. The intrusion of foreign materials will directly cause certain noise during the operation of the bearing, and the improper lubrication and wrong bearing installation will also cause bearing noise. Which kinds of bearings have less noise?

1. The noise of the ball bearing is lower than that of the roller bearing, and the friction noise of the bearing with less sliding is lower than that of the bearing with relatively more sliding; the bearing with more balls and thick outer ring also has smaller noise.

2. The noise of bearing with solid cage is relatively lower than that of a bearing using a stamped cage.

3. The noise of bearing with the plastic cage is lower than that of the bearings using solid cage or stamped cage.

4.Bearings with high precision, especially those with higher precision rolling elements, have lower noise than low precision bearings.

5. The noise of small bearings is relatively small compared to the noise of large bearings.

In order to maintain the good performance of the bearing, daily maintenance, inspection, overhaul, and prevention must be done. For long-running equipment, the usual inspection and tracking is particularly important, including the rotation of the bearing, vibration, temperature, lubricant status, etc. According to the test results, equipment maintenance personnel can find and deal with problems in time. ZYS will carefully analyze the technical information and application of bearing offered by the customer, and then choose the right type of bearing and inform the precautions during installation and operation. If you want to know more information, please send email to zysdong@gmail.com or visit our website: www.zysbearing.com.

ZYS High-speed Angular Contact Ball Bearings

High Precision Angular Contact Ball Bearings are our hot products. We have been engaged in research and development of High Precision Angular Contact Ball Bearings since 1958. ZYS has set up a scientific research workstation, and a strong world class experts team for High Precision Angular Contact Ball Bearings, whose main researches represent the technology developing direction of China bearing industry. So we bring you the High Precision Angular Contact Ball Bearings with best quality , high precision, reliable performance and strong durability.

1. Application of High-speed Angular Contact Ball Bearings:

•Machine tool spindle

•Robot technology

•high-frequency motor

•gas turbine

•centrifuge

•small-size automobile front wheels

•differential pinion shaft 

2. Advantages of High-speed Angular Contact Ball Bearings:

The inner ring, outer ring and rolling element of High-speed Angular Contact Ball Bearings are made in high carbon chromium bearing steel. The chamfer arc radius of rings is reasonable, which is not only convenient to install, but also guaranteed to improve the installation precision and reduce the risk of the related parts being bumped. 

•The speed performance of High-speed Angular Contact Ball Bearings is outstanding. 

•Unique heat treatment process of High-speed Angular Contact Ball Bearings allows products to achieve the best dimensional stability and rigidity, so as to reduce wear and tear. 

•Multiple pre-load levels can help to meet different requirements for speed and system stiffness, which is more reasonable to select and use the levels. 

Visit more:

http://www.zysbearing.com/precision-bearings/high-precision-angular-contact-ball-bearings.html

The importance of lubricant on bearing torque

Rolling element bearings, such as ball bearing and roller bearings, support the load required to carry out a machine’s function at a much lower friction than a fluid bearing alternative. This reduces the power required to drive the equipment, lowering the cost of moving the load and the energy required to operate the equipment.
Bearing torque is the force required to overcome internal friction to start or maintain rotation of the bearing. This frictional torque is generally increased with a larger bearing, increased load or increased lubricant drag.

How can we get the right bearing torque?
Many applications require the bearing to spin easily with extremely low frictional torque, without generating excess heat. Dry lubricant is one way of meeting these low torque requirements. Despite being solid, dry lubricants can reduce friction between two surfaces without the need for oil or grease.
Instrument oils are another option for low torque requirements. They will often produce very low torque levels especially at very low speeds.

There are many oils and greases to choose from, and there are other factors to consider aside from torque, such as contamination, speed or corrosion resistance. With the right lubrication type, correct fill level and consideration of load, you’ll be able to source bearings with the correct frictional torque for the specific application.

Bearing failure cause analysis program

1. Determine the most complete operating condition information.

2. Related photos in the process.

3. Alignment of used and unused lubricant samples.

4. Mark the bearing and its location in the device.

5. Carefully disassemble the bearings to avoid unnecessary extra damage.

6. Inspect other machine components to determine incidental damage.

7. Confirm the bearing base and seat.

8. Confirm the condition and distribution of the lubricant in the bearing. Extract additional samples if possible.

9. Clean the bearings and components, if possible, record the logo, brand and full name.

10. Realize the analysis of bearings and corresponding parts. Take other photos.

11. Compare the failure mode standard photos provided by the International Standards Organization 15243 and/or the bearing manufacturer to determine the cause of the failure.

12. Determine the necessary corrective actions necessary to avoid the same failure again.

13. Protect and retain faulty bearings for future comparisons.

14. Example: Some of the above cases will be shown

15. Interactive exercises: Some interactions with bearing failures will be shown during the workshop

16. Conclusions and recommendations. http://www.zys-bearings.com/