SKF announces a unique bearing design(Oct 24,2005)

SKF has developed a new single bearing solution, which removes the main shaft, saving weight and cost in the nacelle of wind turbines and protect the gear box from the rotor loads. Intended for the new generation of large wind turbines the new double row taper roller bearing (DRTRB) with segmented PEEK cage gives high operational reliability, together with extremely low friction. In addition, the PEEK cage and other design features enable increased maintenance intervals. The new DRTBB has two rows of tapered rollers arranged "back to back" giving very high load carrying capacity with extremely high stiffness. The bearing is preloaded and the gearbox is loaded just by pure torque load and protected form the rotor loads, as the bearing supports the rotor and drive train. The large diameter of the bearing makes it strong enough to withstand yaw and tilt moments, adding to its high reliability in the complex load conditions that wind turbines have to deal with. The segmented cage design also improves the roller guiding and together with the internal design of the bearing they give optimized load distribution among the rollers. PEEK is a high grade engineering polymer material; polyetheretherkeytone