Wind turbines are becoming larger and more powerful, and the mainshaft bearing system — an integral part of the drive train — is of particular importance as it ultimately takes all the forces and torques exerted by the wind. It is here that bearing manufacturer
Schaeffler is contributing to the development of multi-megawatt wind turbines.
In Lindø, Denmark, the world’s most powerful test facility for mainshaft bearings will be built at
LORC (Lindø Offshore Renewables Centre). This represents a major investment and includes grants from the Danish GreenLab programme, and tests should be running by the end of 2025. To build the new test facility, LORC has partnered with R&D Test Systems, a leading supplier of test equipment for the wind industry; Schaeffler played a major part in defining the specifications of the test facility; and in cooperation with OEMs the company will be the first customer to test its mainshaft bearings for future generations of wind turbines.
Michael Pausch, Schaeffler Industrial CTO, said: “We are a key market and technology leader for bearing technologies in the wind power industry. With LORC, one of the most experienced operators of test facilities for wind turbine drivetrains, we have found a partner to help us further expand our know-how and our product performance. We now have the opportunity to shape the development of the next generations of wind turbines with suitable testing technology and method development.”
Bernd Endres, Schaeffler Industrial’s vice president of ‘Business Unit Wind,’ added: “We have been gaining valuable insights for the development of bearing solutions since 2011 with our large size bearing test bench ‘Astraios’, the world’s most powerful test bench at the time. With the new test facility, we will now be able to advance into new and future dimensions and contribute to a more rapid development of reliable multi-megawatt turbines.”
Schaeffler has been offering bearing solutions for onshore and offshore wind turbines for around 40 years. Rolling bearings from Schaeffler are found in ‘every second to third wind turbine worldwide’.