Fast Production of Replacement Gears for Wind-Turbine Gearboxes

Wind energy becomes increasingly important, but the rapid evolution of wind turbines is at the expense of reliability. Insurance statistics revealed that the gear boxes often are the cause for malfunctions. Repairing is expensive and time consuming, as the delivery time for replacement gears and bearings can take up to 18 months. Thus, alternative solutions are requested, especially from the operating companies. Regarding gears, a manufacturing process would be interesting, which is independent from special and gear-individual tools like hobs. 5-axes-milling is considered to be a feasible approach for machining before heat treatment, as a variety of gears could be flexibly reproduced.