(PM) Essen, 20.02.2012 - For several years the contribution of renewable energy to worldwide electricity production has continued to expand at an incredibly rapid rate. The market for wind power installations is of particular importance and is growing not only in Germany but also in many other countries where significantly stronger growth has been evident in recent years.

Maintenance and repair work on wind power installations is expensive and time-consuming because of restricted accessibility. Shutdown times reduce energy output and return on investment. It is therefore essential to have a reliable and cost-effective wind turbine design, absolutely precise knowledge of operating stresses in gear units, couplings and bearing as well as dependable protection from overload situations. The issue of vibration is of particular importance here.

The urgent issue of improving the reliability and availability of large-scale wind power installations is therefore at the centre of the bilingual technology event "Drivetrains in wind power installations / Antriebsstränge in Windenergieanlagen" to be held at the Haus der Technik on 27 and 28 March 2012 in Essen, Germany.

The conference will be led by Professor Berthold Schlecht of the Institute of Machine Elements and Machine Design at the Technical University of Dresden. It will focus on basic designs for the erection and functionalities of wind power installations as well as on familiar weak points and on the resulting requirements in terms of components and sub-assemblies of the main drivetrain. Standard current design and calculation methods for bearings, couplings and gear units with spur gear and planet wheel stages, as well as gearing correction options, will be discussed. In addition, modern simulation methods (multi-body simulation (MBS) in conjunction with the finite element method (FEM)) for the determination of realistic load assumptions will be investigated, as well as the possibilities and limits of use of machine diagnostic procedures. The event will be rounded off by an examination of basic connections to the lubrication systems of drive-technical components
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Simultaneous translation from German to English (or vice-versa) will be available at the conference to meet the requirements of an international audience.

To find out more about the programme of events, please contact the Haus der Technik on Tel. (+49) (0) 201/1803-344 (Sabine Gebauer), Fax (+49) (0) 201/1803-346 or look on the Internet at www.windenergie-info.de or www.hdt-essen.de/W-H010-03-436-2