Hybrid Bearings With Ceramic Balls For Wind Turbine Power Trains

NSK also presented a new innovation at HUSUM WindEnergy – a hybrid bearing with ceramic balls that boasts a long life and also acts as an electrical insulator. This function is needed to prevent electricity from passing through the power train and to minimise the associated damage, e.g. when current peaks or circulating currents (electrical corrosion) occur.

NSK has already gained extensive experience of working with a combination of heavy-duty steel and ceramic. Its ROBUST™ bearings with ceramic balls have gained a reputation as extremely stressable, long-life, high-precision bearings in the machine-tool industry. Now, NSK is utilising this experience for larger bearings – such as those used in wind turbines – and has ramped up its production capacities for high-precision ceramic components accordingly.

The company’s other exhibits included spherical roller bearings for rotor shafts, bearings for generators, and pre-installed bearing units in a sample wind turbine gear shaft.

All of the bearings fulfil the wind power industry’s extremely high requirements as regards durability. They are designed for a service life of over 20 years – even in adverse operating conditions including highly dynamic wind loads, moisture and temperature fluctuations. NSK uses high-purity bearing steels for its wind sector products. Special materials are also used for specific requirements, such as Super-TF steel, which was developed for precisely this application profile.

With this broad range of products, NSK can now present itself as a full-range supplier of bearings for the whole wind turbine power train.