Safety couplings for wind turbines being tested:
NOFFZ Technologies supplies clutch test system for the Chinese subsidiary of RENK AG
Tönisvorst,18.01.2021/ NOFFZ Technologies, as a total system integrator for a global project of Renk AG Germany, has developed a sophisticated measuring and testing system for the Chinese location RENK Shanghai Service & Commercial Co. Ltd. There, high-quality safety couplings for huge electric drive trains of large wind turbines are manufactured.
For the project, Renk was looking for a partner with whom international collaboration is possible. The company, therefore, decided in favour of NOFFZ Technologies GmbH, which, with its many years of experience and its global locations, including in the metropolitan region of Shanghai, can offer the desired networking and implement it locally.
The planning and construction of the test system took place in close cooperation with Renk Germany at the NOFFZ headquarters in Tönisvorst and was then carried out on-site by colleagues from NOFFZ Technologies Co, Ltd. installed in Shanghai.
The specialists were faced with the challenge of realizing a compact test platform for Renk’s large couplings. A complete system was therefore developed in which both the control and the measurement technology come from a single source.
Development performance
The electrical drive trains of the wind turbines are protected with the help of the Renk coupling: It ensures reliable transmission of the torque and guarantees a torque limitation in the event of overload, which is implemented by controlling predefined torque values.
NOFFZ Technologies developed an intelligent test solution for the safe and reliable acquisition of these measured values, while at the same time optimally displaying and implementing a storage system.
The NOFFZ test system was divided into several control cabinets with high-performance frequency converters for controlling the motors and load units. The frequency converters receive the corresponding signals via the S7 PLC control unit from Siemens.
The clutch test bench can record the torque values with up to 500kNm using appropriate load cells and the angle of rotation of the clutches to be tested. At the same time, temperature values are recorded using the cDAQ system from NI (National Instruments) with appropriate signal conditioning modules.
For the implementation of the required reporting with extensive measurement logs, NOFFZ developed a software solution tailored to RENK based on the NI software LabVIEW.
In addition, the control and operating panel was equipped with touch displays, which make operation even easier.
The test system was installed after a short development, design and construction phase of just three months and has been successfully in use in Shanghai since December 2020.
Contact us:
NOFFZ Technologies GmbH
Sandra Heinrich, PR & Marketing
E-Mail: sandra.heinrich@noffz.com
Tel.: +49 2151 99878 133