Wind turbine gears produced by Gleason gear production machines and cutting tools supply over 50 percent of the world's wind energy.   That percentage is expected to increase, with introduction of a host of advanced new technologies designed to improve production, quality and cost of even the very largest wind turbine gears. Visitors to the Gleason booth at Windpower 2010 can learn more about many of these new technologies, including the company's line of gear cutting tools and workholding solutions for large cylindrical gear production and its complete series of quick-change workholding equipment for large production machines, such as the Gleason  X-Pandisk fixture system which automatically aligns workpieces weighing up to 2,000 kg to reduce changeover time by up to 70 percent.

While not exhibited at Windpower 2010, several other significant new Gleason technologies and products will be introduced to visitors. In the Titan gear grinding machines, Gleason has combined productivity gains with the very high precision required by today's manufacturers of larger cylindrical gears.  Among Titan's most important capabilities is its ability to offer users, on a single platform, the flexibility for the production of single parts with an advanced profile grinding option and much faster fully-automated large-scale production option of combining profile grinding and threaded wheel grinding using our innovation POWER GRIND process.

Significant productivity benefits are possible on new Gleason Profile Grinding Machines utilizing the OPTI-GRIND process. This technology uses multiple grinding wheels (for roughing and finishing) simultaneously at significantly reduced production times.   In addition to the productivity gains inherent in the use of OPTI-GRIND, users also benefit from improved surface roughness as a consequence of using a fine grit size grinding wheel for the finishing cycle.

For the complete inspection of gears as large as three meters in diameter, the Gleason GMM Series of Analytical Gear Inspection Systems is a leader in speed, accuracy and ease of operation, according to the company's press release. The GMM machines are equipped with GAMA, and the Renishaw SP80H Probe system, making the GMM machine series a user-friendly inspection system.