Romax Technology has recently completed a joint project with Baodin Tianwei to design the main rotor bearing housing for a 1.5MW wind turbine. Using the RomaxDesigner software suite, Romax and Tianwei have successfully designed one of most critical components of the wind turbine and passed the technical report in readiness for the Germanischer Lloyd certification.
Working on the main rotor bearing housing is a natural progression for Romax Technology, a company that has many years experience in gearbox design.
Mr Zhang Wanxiang, Vice General Director of Tianwei, worked directly with Dr Yongle Song, Project Manager and Mr Michael Barnes, Principal Engineer at Romax and the Wind Turbine Engineering team, to achieve the results within the allocated time schedule. “Working with Romax Technology has allowed us to develop this critical component and take into account so many different factors within our design. The computer aided engineering simulation has proved invaluable giving us confidence in the design and we are very pleased with how the project has gone.”
During this complex project Romax used a full-system approach to develop the design of the main rotor bearing housing. This component is vitally important and engineers from both companies investigated all of the various factors that could affect the housing from the effect of bedplate stiffness to the tolerance distribution considering manufacturing, thermal and structural deformation under various loads.
Upon completion of the project Romax visited Tianwei and gave a three-day technology transfer training programme to Tianwei’s Engineering Design team. The first prototype of Tianwei’s 1.5MW Wind Turbine is expected early next year.