Breakthroughs in wind power bearing technology in recent years

Wind power bearings are considered by the industry to be one of the two difficult parts for localization, and the other is wind power control systems. In recent years, China's wind power bearing industry has gradually formed large-scale and serialized production. The industry has continued to expand, key technologies have continued to break through, and a number of technologies and products with independent intellectual property rights have been tested for reliability.

■■ High-end bearings have become

Wind power equipment manufacturing weakness

Despite the rapid development of China's equipment manufacturing industry, most of the high-end bearings supporting major equipment rely on imports. In addition, large-scale wind turbine bearings, deep well drilling turret bearings, offshore drilling platform bearings and other high-end bearings for energy equipment are also the weaknesses of domestic enterprises.

Industry experts believe that as one of the important supporting equipment for wind turbines, wind power bearings are subject to complex forces and vibrations, which must withstand huge shock loads, and the installation costs of yaw and pitch bearings are relatively large. 20 years of life. Due to the harsh working conditions of wind power equipment and the requirements for long life and high reliability, wind power bearings have high technical complexity, which is one of the two major parts (bearings and control systems) that are difficult to localize.

Domestic wind power bearings rely on foreign imports for a long period of time, which is expensive, increases the cost of wind power equipment per kilowatt, and restricts the reduction of wind power costs. According to experts, the technical threshold for yaw bearings and pitch bearings in wind power bearings is relatively low, while the technical content of spindle bearings and gearbox bearings is relatively high, and generator bearings are basically universal products with mature technology. At present, the production capacity of domestic wind power bearing companies is mainly concentrated on yaw bearings and pitch bearings, and is mainly supporting bearings for wind power equipment below 3 MW. For the main shaft bearings and gearbox bearings, they basically rely on imports, and only a few domestic companies Get involved.

■■ Low-speed wind power

New requirements for wind turbines

Whether the wind turbine is good or not, the bearing is the core factor. In the traditional wind turbine, the bearing plays the role of "Mr. Key". Because wind turbines are installed at high altitudes, the maintenance costs are high, and the working environment is relatively harsh, which is vulnerable to pollution from sand, dust, water mist, and freezing. This requires the supporting bearings to have high rigidity and high reliability. Meet its 20-year service life requirements.

The test of bearings in the field of low-speed wind power is more severe. In recent years, China has vigorously developed the clean onshore wind power industry and transferred it to power load centers such as the southern Middle East. Due to the characteristics of low local average wind speed and rapid changes in wind speed and wind direction, new requirements have been imposed on wind turbines.

The central and southern regions of China are typical low wind speed regions, located in the center of electrical load, and have good grid access conditions, but the average wind speed is low, the wind speed and wind direction change rapidly, and they have the characteristics of low energy density and high turbulence intensity, which requires the energy capture capability of wind turbine In particular, in order to be able to withstand random alternating aerodynamic shocks, targeted research and development of low-speed wind turbines and their supporting bearings is required. There is no precedent in the world, and independent innovation is extremely difficult.

■■ Powered by independent innovation

National green and low-carbon development

Difficulties have not stopped domestic bearing companies from moving forward in exploration. As the first domestic enterprise to carry out research and development of supporting bearings for wind power, Luoyang LYC Bearing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Luosha") has undergone more than 60 years of construction and development, and has become a comprehensive company with a large production scale and strong supporting service capability in China One of the bearing manufacturing enterprises still maintains a number of Chinese bearing industry records such as high bearing production accuracy grades, complex structures, and large dimensions.

According to Zhang Wenbin, the head of the marketing department of Luosha Company, Luosha successfully developed the first domestically produced wind turbine yaw bearing in January 1997. It has been operating in the wind farm for more than 20 years and has become the bearing industry in China. Companies that have long been qualified in the field. In 2007, Luo Shao presided over the drafting of the national machinery industry standard-JB / T10705-2007 "Rolling Bearing Wind Turbine Bearings", and in 2012 he also wrote the national standard for fan bearings-GB / T29717-2013 "Rolling Bearing Wind Turbine Partial Aviation, Pitch Bearing ", GB / T29718-2013" Rolling Bearing Wind Turbine Spindle Bearing ".

In addition, Luoyang LYC Bearing Co., Ltd. as one of the main participating units of the "high-efficiency low-wind speed wind turbine key technology research and development and large-scale engineering application" project won the "2018 National Science and Technology Progress Second Prize", for the domestic bearing industry The national award project.

Lu Bingheng, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, believes that the research and development of high-end bearings involves a series of technical problems such as materials, grease and lubrication, manufacturing, design, bearing manufacturing equipment, testing and testing, and also involves contact mechanics, lubrication theory, tribology, fatigue and failure, heat treatment and Basic research and interdisciplinary studies such as material organization. Must focus on industrial development policies, technology development planning and other aspects to address the problem of lagging development of high-end bearings in the equipment manufacturing industry.