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R&D project

Increasing the availability and the quality optimization of drive train components and gears for wind power plants (EVeQT)

Period of the project

Start: September 2012
End:  January 2017

Description of the project

Wind power plants (WPPs) are exposed to high dynamic loads. In the past few years, frequent bearing and gear damages have occurred in many plants which can be attributed to quality defects on the gear box components. In order to sustainably prevent such damages, reliable and meaningful measurement technology is required.

For this reason, this project is predominantly aimed at achieving, for the first time, the sustainable safeguarding of reliable measurements of large gears for WPPs both in production and later in operation. In this way, an increase in the availability and a reduction of the specific costs shall be achieved.

All reliable measurements will be based on the establishment of a chain of procedures which can be completely traced back - starting at the National Metrology Institute of Germany, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and – via accredited laboratories under the control of the Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle (DAkkS) - reaching as far as to industry. For this purpose, new large gears which have been adapted to the needs of industry are developed within the scope of the project. After the end of the project term, the prerequisites will have been established which will allow future conformity assessment bodies for large gearings to be accredited. The establishment of a traceability chain via accredited conformity assessment bodies will allow industry to have its large gears and gear measurement standards be calibrated for the first time. With the aid of this the industry can proof the quality of its gear measurements in compliance with the written standards and with traceability to the SI units. Only in this way measuring processes in industry can, for the first time, be reliably and clearly assessed and compared.

Project partner

Bremer Institut for Messtechnik, Automatisierung and Qualitätswissenschaft (BIMAQ, Universität Bremen), 1 industrial partner


Contact

Ann-Kathrin Wiemann, M. Sc and Dr. rer. nat. Martin Stein