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Wind Energy

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2025-03-18

CNC Onsite Extends Up-Tower Yaw Ring Repair for Wind Turbine Platforms

CNC Onsite, a Danish mobile machining expert, has extended its in-situ yaw ring repair service, which can now handle a range of common wind turbine platforms. Since nacelle layouts and working space around the yaw ring differ, each turbine type requires a custom machine setup. With the expanded service, CNC Onsite meets the growing demand for its cost-effective repair over replacements.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2025-03-10

Atlantic Bearing Services Sponsors U.S. Caribbean Business Conference 2025

Atlantic Bearing Services will take part in the U.S. Caribbean Business Conference 2025 as a bronze sponsor, reinforcing its growth and commitment to strengthening business relationships in the Caribbean. As one of the leading engineering companies participating, ABS joins top companies from various industries in a key event to explore new opportunities in the region.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2025-03-07

Schaeffler Bearings Improve Protection Against Current Passage

Whether in traction motors for rail transport, wind energy systems, or drive technology, the use of electric motors or generators with frequency converters is increasingly becoming the norm. However, this trend also introduces the risk of electrical voltage developing between the inner and outer rings of rolling bearings. 

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2025-02-12

The Reliability Game

Call it destiny, divine intervention or good ole-fashioned fate, speaking with Alejandro Pardiñas, CEO of Atlantic Bearing Services (ABS) and ABS Wind, one gets the impression he had no choice other than to become a mechanical engineer. This was evident way back when his great-grandfather became a mining engineer for Rio Tinto.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-11-21

A Sneak Peek at Quality Control at Atlantic Bearing Services (ABS)

Antonio Martin Hernandez, Marco Partidas, Dayan Leng Armenteros, and Laura Vazquez diligently working on various components that require special attention. They are focused on inner rings (IRs) for cylindrical roller bearings, which play a crucial role in reducing friction and supporting radial loads. Additionally, they handle bevel gears, essential components in gearboxes that change the direction of torque transmission across various industrial applications.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-11-06

Iberdrola-Avangrid and Alejandro Pardiñas to Receive the Ponce de Leon Awards from the Spain-US Chamber of Commerce

The Spain-US Chamber of Commerce in Florida is proud to announce that the recipients of the 2024 Ponce de León Awards for "Company of the Year" are Iberdrola and its U.S. subsidiary, Avangrid and the "Executive of the Year" is Alejandro Pardiñas, CEO of ABSrecognizing their exceptional contributions to energy innovation and industrial leadership. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-10-15

Sartell City Council Enters Purchase Agreement with Niron Magnetics for Major Development

The Sartell City Council has signed a Purchase Agreement with Niron Magnetics for 79 acres of public land on the east side of 4th Avenue South. This property, part of the 167-acre Champion Plat acquired by the City of Sartell last year during the purchase of the Mill District, marks a significant development for the community.

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INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-09-20

R&D Test Systems Completes Foundation for new Test Bench: Main Bearings for 25 MW Wind Turbines

Nine months into building the most powerful test bench for main bearings to date, R&D Test Systems, Denmark’s wind turbine test specialist, has completed the 3,700 metric ton foundation and is now designing and welding the test bench parts that will perform extreme test loads on main bearings for 25 MW wind turbines. With delivery in 2025, the test bench is bound for LORC’s new main bearing test facility.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-09-09

ZF Wind Power Coimbatore is the first plant in India to roll out 50 Gigawatts of Wind Gearboxes

ZF Wind Power has announced a major milestone for the Indian market: the total production of 50 GW gearbox capacity at its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Coimbatore, India. This achievement underlines ZF’s commitment to India's renewable energy landscape, while strengthening their position as a strategic partner on the road to a sustainable future.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-08-23

Emerging Technology Center Sneak Peek at IMTS 2024

When manufacturing leaders, job shop owners, engineers, and designers want to see what their operations might look like in the near future, one of their must-visit destinations is AMT’s Emerging Technology Center (ETC) at IMTS – The International Manufacturing Technology Show. IMTS 2024 runs Sept. 9-14 at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2024-07-26

Schaeffler Optimizes Wind Turbines Using Closed Loop Engineering

Wind turbines have a decisive role to play in the expansion of renewable energy. Schaeffler is a market leader and strategic development partner in the wind technology industry, leveraging closed loop engineering to play a key role that goes far beyond the provision of bearing solutions for on- and offshore wind. Working in close partnership with turbine and gearbox manufacturers, the company supports wind turbine development through state-of-the art system simulation, realistic test-bench testing, and field measurement campaigns.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-07-24

Flender Receives Global Business Award

Mona Neubaur, deputy prime minister and minister of economic affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia, recently presented the NRW.Global Business Award 2024 to Flender CEO Andreas Evertz. Flender was one of four winners honored at the 20th anniversary of the Award at the K21 Ständehaus in Düsseldorf.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-12-13

Sulzer Boosts Power Infrastructure in China

China is leading the world in the construction of solar, wind and thermal power plants to support its increasing demand for electrical energy. For those that use steam turbines, boiler feed pumps (BFPs) are a crucial asset and selecting the best design to suit the needs of an individual station can have many benefits. When a recent project needed some of the largest start-up BFPs available, Sulzer was selected as the preferred supplier.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-11-21

ONYX Insight’s Software Enhances Turbine Condition Monitoring

ONYX Insight has unveiled a new upgrade to its fleetMONITOR technology which will enable wind operators to monitor the health of their turbines using data from Bently Nevada System.   

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TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2023-09-29

Derivation of Relative EHL Film Thickness

This report derives the equation for relative elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) film thickness. Mineral (MIN), polyalphaolefin (PAO), and polyalkylene glycol (PAG) lubricants with viscosity grades of ISO 320, 150, and 32 are analyzed.

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2023-09-28

Repowering the Future: Data-Driven Wind Farms

There is growing financial risk to maintaining operational wind turbines. The average lifespan of a wind turbine is around 20 years and as components within turbines begin to approach the end of their lifecycle, performance can decline resulting in reduced productivity. Meanwhile, recent reports have highlighted that new, larger capacity machines could lead to a rise in component failures and mechanical breakdown issues as manufacturers push to develop bigger turbines, faster.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-08-14

NKE Set to Display Bearings at Husum Wind 2023

NKE Austria GmbH (Booth #3C16) will exhibit at this year's Husum Wind trade show taking place September 12-15 in Husum, Germany. The Austrian bearing manufacturer participates for the first time at the fair for renewable energies in Northern Germany.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-07-20

Nearthlab Expands Partnership with ONYX Insight

Nearthlab, a leading provider of autonomous drone technology, announced that the company is scaling up its strategic partnership with ONYX Insight, a global provider of predictive maintenance solutions (PdM) beyond North America to Europe and APAC. The expansion comes a few months after the initial kick-off in March.  

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-06-26

Schaeffler Wind Power Standard Ensures Maximum Reliability in Wind Turbines

Schaeffler introduced a Wind Power Standard for wind turbine bearings more than ten years ago, which considers the high demands on the reliability of turbines and associated components. This standard for products and processes ensures that wind turbine bearings are subject to the highest quality standards, as also implemented, for example, in the automotive industry, and in the aviation and aerospace sectors. The start of the year marked the manufacture and delivery of the millionth bearing by Schaeffler in accordance with the Wind Power Standard.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-06-15

ADS Uptime Condition Monitoring System Featured at Cleanpower

ADS Uptime is an extremely useful condition monitoring system for encoders. With local wireless service check-up or system integration with ADS Link, you have maximum flexibility to access data and diagnostics. With ADS Uptime, you can access live data and secure production uptime by making application health monitoring part of your proactive maintenance routine. Knowing things before they happen has never been easier. It was recently featured at the Heidenhain booth during Cleanpower 2023.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-05-16

Heidenhain to Exhibit at Cleanpower

Heidenhain Corporation will be exhibiting at Cleanpower, May 22-25 in New Orleans, LA. The booth (#1514) will feature technologies from two companies in the Heidenhain family of brands—Leine Linde and LTN—that can reduce challenges related to wind turbine service and boost overall uptime. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-04-24

NKE Austria Announces Partnership with Kugler Bimetal

Bearing manufacturer NKE Austria GmbH is entering into a strategic partnership with Kugler Bimetal SA, a Swiss producer of bimetallic components and tribological surface finishes. The cooperation was announced at the Hannover Messe in April 2023. 

TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2023-04-06

On the Potential of High-Ratio Planetary Gearboxes for Next-Generation Robotics

The earliest example of a gear train dates to at least 2,000 B.C. when Chinese engineers built a chariot that used a complex planetary mechanism made of wooden gears to let a dragon head continuously point south when driven around (Ref. 1). In Greece, a surprisingly advanced Antikythera gearbox mechanism, incorporating at least 37 precisely crafted bronze gears, was built years later, between 205–60 B.C. (Ref. 2).

REVOLUTIONS | 2023-04-03

Hannover Messe Bearings Preview

PTE will feature a variety of new component technologies online for bearings, motors, couplings, brakes, gear drives, and motion control systems leading up to Hannover Messe 2023 in Germany. Here is a preview of some bearings suppliers to check out if you're planning on attending the event online or in-person in April.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-03-21

NKE to Feature Wind Power Bearings at Hannover Messe

At this year’s Hannover Messe, NKE Austria GmbH will present bearings for wind turbine gearboxes and generators. The Austrian bearing manufacturer has more than 20 years of experience in the wind energy sector. NKE bearings have been installed in more than 4,000 wind turbines across Europe, the USA and China, equivalent to more than 10,000 MW of installed power. 

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2023-02-07

Asset Management in Manufacturing

PT products such as gears, motors, pumps, fans and bearings will—without a doubt—continue to run through rigorous and harsh environments for the foreseeable future, but software and hardware improvements aim to disrupt unplanned downtime and machine maintenance through a series of new condition monitoring assets.

POWER PLAY | 2022-12-02

Wind of Change

Wind-turbine drivetrains undergo severe transient loading during start-ups, shut-downs, emergency stops, and during grid connections. Load cases that result in torque reversals may be particularly damaging to bearings, as rollers may be skidding during the sudden relocation of the loaded zone. Seals and lubrication systems must work reliably over a wide temperature variation to prevent the ingress of dirt and moisture and perform effectively at all rotational speeds in the gearbox. Many wind-turbine gearboxes have also suffered from fundamental design issues such as ineffective interference fits that result in unintended motion and wear, ineffectiveness of internal lubrication paths and problems with sealing. Improving the resistance of future gearbox designs to all these issues is a key to the future cost of energy generated by wind turbines.

REVOLUTIONS | 2022-11-21

Freudenberg Seals Improve Offshore Wind Turbine Service Life

The European Union aims to expand the capacity for wind power generated at sea to at least 60 gigawatts by 2030. With its sealing solutions for the foundation structures, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies helps ensure that new wind turbines reach a service life of at least 30 years or more despite the rough conditions at sea. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-11-15

Schaeffler Acquires CERASPIN

The automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler has signed a contract with the CERATIZIT Group for the acquisition of CERASPIN. Based in Livange, Luxembourg, CERASPIN has over 25 years’ experience in the development and production of premium ceramic products, the majority of which are processed into rolling elements for various bearing applications.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-11-04

Danfoss Power Solutions Names Sira President of Fluid Conveyance Division

Danfoss Power Solutions has appointed Ines E. Sira as the new president of its Fluid Conveyance division, effective immediately. Based at the company’s campus in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Sira will be a key member of the Power Solutions leadership team and will report directly to Eric Alström, president of Danfoss Power Solutions.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-10-03

ZF Wind and R&D Test Systems Develop Test Bench for Powertrains and Gearboxes

In its largest order to date, Danish wind turbine test specialist R&D Test Systems will develop the 30 MW powertrain and gearbox test bench for ZF Wind Power’s future “Test & Prototype Center” at Lommel, Belgium. Capable of simulating the multiplicity of wind loads that a nacelle powertrain might experience in its lifetime, the test rig, to be delivered in 2024, will help improve product reliability and shorten time to market.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-09-22

Bonfiglioli Introduces the Winch Drive Series 800

Bonfiglioli presents the new high performant 800 series which comes in five sizes from 25,000 to 160,000 Nm in marine-resistant paint, suitable for blast cleaning. Easy and fast assembly of the 800 series gearboxes into the winch drum is a key feature of their design. Maintenance requirements are made as simple as possible, e.g., with an easy access to the brake, ready-made brake replacement kits as well as easy access to oil filling, draining plugs, and oil level pipe/indicator. 

REVOLUTIONS | 2022-08-29

Freudenberg Aids High Flying Wind Farm

Wind farms are expanding around the world. This is good for climate change. Wind turbines are being installed on the high seas with nacelle heights of more than 100 meters and rotor diameters of nearly 170 meters. This increases both the electricity yield and economic efficiency. Freudenberg is aiding wind power’s conquest with high performance components and materials.

REVOLUTIONS | 2022-08-24

SKF Has Professional Skater Covered

We’ve covered SKF in medical, wind turbine, hand tool, solar panel, and compressor applications. We’ve examined SKF bearings utilized in crazy, out-of-this-world, aerospace applications. Nothing, however, tops the seal of approval coming from a professional skater in Europe.

REVOLUTIONS | 2022-07-11

The Quest for the Perfect Turbine

ONYX Insight examines how digital tools can provide wind energy solutions, from day-to-day problem solving to future-proofing operations and maintenance (O&M) strategies through condition monitoring technologies.

REVOLUTIONS | 2022-05-06

The Extreme Ends of Turbine Condition Monitoring

One of ONYX’s customers and a leader in driving up the reliability and asset performance of the wind industry, Pattern Energy, uses ONYX turbine monitoring for over 1,100 wind turbines. Across this fleet ONYX connects several CMS hardware types to fleetMONITOR, a multi-brand solution for drivetrain monitoring. Two of the wind farms were retrofitted with ecoCMS in 2018, the technology with which ONYX disrupted the CMS industry.

REVOLUTIONS | 2022-04-25

Performance and Safety Top Priorities in Gear and Gear Drive Applications

The gear and gear drive segment of mechanical power transmission continues to focus on performance, reliability and safety. There are several new products offering increased load capacity, reduced friction and longer service life. For those components unable to keep up with industrial demands, there’s a gearbox MRO team waiting to handle emergency repair services.

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2021-08-01

Gear Manufacturing in Motion

Electric and fluid power has expanded the focus recently at the Motion + Power Technology Expo - September 14-16, St. Louis, Missouri - but gear manufacturing remains the core of AGMA's biennial trade show.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2021-02-01

How Predictive Maintenance Can Unlock Offshore Wind Growth

A practical guide to adopting digital technology in wind energy applications.
| 2019-06-03

Morgan Advanced Materials Examines Wind Turbine Mechanics

Reliance on wind power is increasing, so the industry must continue to find ways to operate more efficiently, while reducing maintenance and costs....
| 2018-11-08

Webinar: Advanced Mainshaft Bearing Solutions for Wind Turbines

Mainshaft bearings inside wind turbines are subjected to extremely harsh operating conditions that result in failure patterns which include surface-initiated fatigue, abrasive wear and uneven internal load distribution. This webinar will introduce you to the latest engineering advancements in spherical roller bearing design, including solutions that allow potentially damaging thrust to be safely transferred through the bearing to the housing support. The resulting reduction in torque, friction and heat significantly improves the overall efficiency of the system, thereby enabling the wind turbine to generate more power – more reliably!

| 2018-08-13

Harnessing Reliable Wind Energy with Gearing Solutions

As the wind comes sweeping down the plains of America these days, it passes through fields of wind turbines. As the energy market turns towards ren...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2018-06-01

A Mechanical Healthcare Plan

Motor Operation Gets Big Boost from Smart Technology (Here's How to Take Advantage)
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2017-10-01

U.S. Wind Power Blowing Hot as New Installations Flourish

A look at recent installations, plus interviews with some wind industry insiders.
PRODUCT NEWS | 2017-02-01

Product News

The complete Product News section from the February 2017 issue of Power Transmission Engineering.
| 2016-10-10

Klüber Lubrication Offers Specialty Lubricants for Open Drives and Gears Keeping Mineral Processing Plants Up and Running

Authors:  Daniel A. Narnhammer, Head of Global Competence Center Mining at Klüber Lubrication NA LP Justin Koozer, Cement and...
BEARING BRIEFS | 2016-08-01

Analyzing Wind Power

Wind is a form of solar energy. Winds are caused by the uneven heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the irregularities of the earth’s surface, and rotation of the earth. Wind Turbines convert the kinetic energy in wind into mechanical power.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2015-08-01

Baby Steps in Wind Energy

The Department of Energy estimates that 4 million megawatts of potential power—four times the amount all U.S. power plants combined currently produce—exists in offshore wind energy. Construction of America’s first offshore wind turbines began in July. The wind farm, which is being constructed off the coast of Block Island, RI, will consist of five turbines. Together, they will produce 30 MW.
EVENTS | 2010-12-01

AWEA to Wind Supporters--Do Not Panic

Despite posting its slowest quarter since early 2007, AWEA remains optimistic that the wind industry can and will work successfully with the revolving doors in Washington.
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