If you drive a car you will know that oil is a vital component to stop the engine from siezing up. A wind turbine has moving parts and requires lubrication too. Because wind turbines can be located in out of the way places, like on the tops of hills and off-shore, their maintenance can be costly.
Certain blends of base oil and additives cover the different lubrication requirements of individual bearings in wind turbines. The optimum is for one synthetic lubricant to be used on all the gears and moving parts and to last a long time. This may be to resist the wind, the sea salt, the low temperature, the high temperature… whatever.
Shell oil has been a lubricator of car engines for many years. Shell engineers have developed a variety of lubricants that can withstand extremely low temperatures and protect against “micropitting” and bearing wear. In addition, Shell offers an oil-analysis program that can help operators monitor the condition of their lubricant and equipment to avoid unscheduled downtime which can be costly and stop grid connection.
Castrol is also another famous racing and domestic car oil. Castrol say that their synthetic lube blended for the wind industry can offer a significantly greater resistance to micropitting than mineral-based lubricants, provide gearbox protection under high loads, and preserve turbine components longer. It also creates a 5 to 10% thicker oil film to improve gearbox protection and cut wear, while smoothing surfaces resulting in minimal wear or damage. That must be good?
So in conclusion, when you purchase your second-hand wind turbine from MWPS you need to consider what lubrucant you will use on the gears. We can provide you with advice on this.
Oh, and just in case you don’t know what micropitting is- here is an explanation:
Many gears can be affected by a phenomenon known as micropitting. This condition is seen when microscopic cracks form on gears and through time and stress result in microscopic pits. These pits grow larger and eventually break away. This can even be a primary failure mode for gears.
Micropitting generally occurs under elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL). When the oil film thickness under EHL becomes too thin at the gear pitchline, surface asperities will begin to come into contact. When these asperities contact each other on opposing surfaces and under high load, they cause elastic or plastic deformation, which leads to micropitting.
