Oil changes
Predictive Oil Maintenance
Oil changes
Predictive Oil Maintenance
The main gearbox drives the generator marking it a critical piece of equipment. Advanced designs and overall importance to system performance make gearboxes costly to repair or replace after the warranty expires. For example, replacing a gearbox in a 2.5MW turbine can cost a company more than £400,000 when you add in the price of a new gearbox, labor, crane rental, and lost revenue from turbine downtime.
To minimize the chance of a premature gearbox failure, OEMs recommend routine, scheduled maintenance, oil-circulation equipment, and an oil analysis.
Although the maintenance staff traditionally changes the oil, there are many physical and logistical challenges, including the climb up-tower, remote turbine locations, weather extremes, limited available utilities, numerous trips lugging down used oil, lifting 20 liters of new lubricant up an 80-meter tower, and finally pouring it into a gearbox. Following established OEM procedures, the oil change for a wind turbine gearbox generally takes about eight hours and requires three maintenance technicians.
Windbloss, in conjunction with The Chemical Corporation, can supply vastly reduced oil change times by using their purpose designed truck mounted oil exchange unit, all oil is pre-heated and pre-filtered to DIN ISO 4406:99 cleanliness standards via a closed-circuit procedure to ensure the cleanest oil is delivered.
Sage Oil Vac Lubricant Exchange System
- A safer, cleaner, faster and more cost-effective method to exchange lubricants
- Pumps are designed for both onshore and offshore use
- The use of product dedicated hose systems to help remove the risk of any cross contaminations.
- The use of product dedicated holding tanks and pumps
- On-board product filtration systems to pre-clean products to DIN ISO 4406:99 cleanliness standards
- 130-metre-long hose reels fitted as standard
- Gear Oil Tank – Up to1500 litre capacity
- Hydraulic Oil Tank – Up to 500 litre capacity
- Waste Oil Tank – Up to 1500 litre capacity
- Flushing Oil Tanks – up to 500 litre capacity
- All pumps built to European CE standards
- Tank heating systems to ensure for a faster delivery of heavy viscous products
- Metered hoses for accurate measurement of the products delivered.
- All pump systems are built within their own spill containment system.
- All pump systems can be easily be loaded on and off delivery vehicles.
- Faster services with reduced equipment downtime.
