Service Partner of Wind Power
At wind power plants the safety-related bolted connections of the tower, in the turbine building and in the hub, is checked at regular intervals during the entire operating time of 10-20 years. For many years the modern torque multipliers of alkitronic® have been used worldwide, supporting the work of manufacturers and independent service companies.
COMPANY PROFILE
Especially in Germany there is now a dense network of highly qualified companies such as Availon, Perle Industrieservice, DWT, En-ertrag, Juwi, RES, Baju-Engergie, SSC Wind, SeeBa Wind Service, RoSch Industrieservice (to name but a few). In the field of service and maintenance, they look after the value conservation of plants onshore and offshore nationwide.
Wind power plants have been shaping our landscape for more than 30 years. Set up individually or pooled in wind parks, in the countryside and now also offshore, they provide environmentally friendly energy in many countries throughout the world. To produce the required energy the plants must operate flawlessly over many years in wind and weather 24 hours each day, provided the necessary wind is blowing.
INITIAL SITUATION
In order to guarantee safety and operation of the elements in the plants, among other areas the bolted connections are repeatedly checked according to manufacturer’s specifications. In their operating and maintenance manuals the manufacturers of the wind power plants give precise instructions on how to examine each bolt with which torque. Here the torque multipliers of alkitronic® are used.
SOLUTION
Our field service colleague and Key-Account-Manager Wind, Dipl.-Ing. Hans-Joachim v.Albedyhll accompanied a team of company Perle Industrieservice of Emsbüren during work for one day. At a new 2.8 MW plant of manufacturer GE Wind Energy, as part of a so called first service, a 100 % bolt control was carried out, among other things. For this purpose the customer uses various alkitronic® torque multipliers.
FURTHER INFORMATION
For example the compact and strong hydraulic torque wrench alkitronic® AS-3. Due to its small dimensions, low weight, and high performance, it is not only used in the tower, but also in the turbine building, for example on the brakes, the bearing screws or the shaft-hub connection.
In the case of tower flanges over 100 bolts must be checked successively for precise torque. On larger connections the bigger hydraulic torque wrenches of the AS series are active and reliable partners. New is also the alkitronic® AS-15 with less weight and performance. With a max. torque range of 20 000 Nm it is able to check the largest tower bolts up to M64 – high tension.
