IMPROVE PREDICTABILITY OF WIND TURBINE MAINTENANCE 1

The wind turbine can be used for 20 years generally but most wind turbines’ warranty scope is only the first two to five years of whole running lifespan. Since the wind turbine system is aging slowly, not every wind farm owner can prepare for wind turbine maintenance because technicians needed for maintenance work are lack. What’s more, even there are enough technicians to meet routine maintenance requirement of wind farm, unscheduled maintenance will also obviously influence earning of wind farm
Wind farm owners, engineers, technicians and wind turbine manufacturers can drop the risk of unscheduled maintenance through a method, i.e., using the parts with low maintenance requirement and even noticing invalid time in advance, which sounds a little impractical but it’s true
The Shape Is Small But With Big Function
The fiber brush slip ring is such a product, even though which is an insignificant part in total cost and wind turbine design, it has key function for slip ring’s running. The slip ring is installed in the engine room casing of wind turbine, generally used to provide pitching power and control the needed electric signal and energy and it transports electric power and signal through a revolving interface.
The operating principle of slip ring: slide contact and transport electric signal and energy through revolving interface in slip ring assembly. The electrical brush (or contact brush) slides on the revolving slip ring and keeps uninterrupted contact during revolving; that is to say, there requires “Contact between metals” between static electrical brush and revolving slip ring to ensure correct electric signal transmission.
The fiber brush slip ring can offer the working lifespan of at least 100 million revolutions without maintenance for wind turbine owners, which means that technicians only need to disassemble slip ring once during 20 years’ wind turbine working lifespan. Not all slip rings can reach this requirement. In practice, the slip ring assembly’s maintenance requirement can be evaluated only dependent on its design and structure.