Wind Turbines and the Need For Exact Torque Control

As climate change rises on the agenda of governments all over the world, ways to combat it and find alternative energy sources are becoming more and more important.

As such, wind and solar energy are where many are investing their effort and money.

If you've driven across the UK recently, you'll have noticed an increase in the number of wind turbines being erected, but in order for them to become more popular, some serious engineering obstacles had to be overcome.

Not least is the battering these turbines have to put up with.

The wind in the UK can become pretty rough, and while it's great for generating power, it also means the equipment has a lot to put up with. Therefore it's critical that they are maintained well, and that there are no problems with bolts that are either too loose or too tight.

This equates to a lot of maintenance, and it's this that could be causing some of the problems that have been seen with existing installations.

Torque and accuracy

As you can imagine, there are a lot of bolts on a wind turbine, and these have to put up with a lot during their lifetime.

However, when a bolt is fastened, it's important to ensure the torque is absolutely to the manufacturer's specification. If it's not, and it's either under or over what they specify, damage can be caused.

For example, the design of turbines, their height and rotational speed are all used to calculate the vibration that it will undergo. If a bolt is too tight or too loose, it could affect that vibration. This could have the effect of reducing the efficiency of the turbine, or much worse.

If the turbine isn't running correctly, it could result in damage to components, the structure, or it could cause a complete failure and even fire.

EvoTorque2

For these reasons, it's critical to have a tool that can perform in tough conditions but also provide an paralleled accuracy that can be relied on. EvoTorque2 is that tool.

When reapplying torque to an already tightened bolt, it has an accuracy of +/-5%, but when tightening bolts, it has an accuracy of +/-3%.

Also, in a repeated test on an already tightened bolt, it achieved total accumulated overtorque of 15-20%, in the same test, traditional electric tools would have almost certainly resulted in failure of either the tool or the bolt.

Of course, wind farms are usually remote, meaning electricity supply is usually by small generators with long cable runs. This can cause many tools to give erratic output, if they work at all. However the technology used in the motor controller of the EvoTorque2 means it is largely immune to these symptoms.

Also, in tests across a number of Spanish windfarm sites, the EvoTorque2 achieved the OK/PAA/APPROVAL

standard, the only electric multiplier permitted to perform final torque on a number of windfarm sites.

Contact us now

EvoTorque2, then, is the perfect choice. It's safe, it's reliable and it performs when others can't.

Call us now on: 0121 460 1113 to find out how it can help you.