Compact and lightweight–such is the most common requirement for the gearboxes of emission-free, electric drives. With seven basic gearboxes, the LPI series by Liebherr fulfils exactly this need for high power density. With their low weight, reduced installation space and torque ranges from 20,000 Nm to 350,000 Nm, they are ideally suited as drives for crawler and crawler undercarriages. Customized large gearboxes are even available up to the maximum torque of 2,300,000 Nm.

NGC Gears, one of the world’s largest wind power gearbox manufacturers, has completed the installation of two additional EndoFlex generators from UPC-Marathon, a Nitrex company, at its new facility in Jinhu, China location. This acquisition brings the total of generator sets to five since 2022, collectively generating an impressive 800 m³/h (22,252 ft3/h) capacity of endothermic gas supplied to carburizing and hardening furnaces used for processing various gear components. The latest installations in February and March of 2024 support the heat-treating operations of the company’s wind energy gearbox production.

Wind power has emerged as one of the most important sources of renewable energy in recent years. The global wind power capacity was estimated to be 837 gigawatts in 2021 (statista.com). In the United States alone, wind is the largest source of renewable electricity, providing 10.2 percent of the country’s electricity and still growing (cleanpower.org/facts/wind-power/). However, to ensure maximum power generation, the efficiency and reliability of the wind turbine are critical.

In its largest order to date, Danish wind turbine test specialist R&D Test Systems will develop the 30 MW powertrain and gearbox test bench for ZF Wind Power’s future “Test & Prototype Center” at Lommel, Belgium, that will house the world’s most powerful validation test bench for wind turbines. 

When it comes to an early identification of noise problems in the drivetrain one has to take data analytics and its integration in the manufacturing process into account. The big vision here, in particular, is preventive quality. By evaluating sensor data of the machining process, it promises to predict whether a gear is ok or not ok. 

Aircraft engines can be made more efficient by integrating planetary gears. In such an application, the planetary gears experience very high load cycles under fully reversed bending loads. Pulsator test rigs, which nowadays offer the possibility to perform UHCF investigations, can only be used for purely pulsating loading of gears. Therefore, for the investigation of the UHCF tooth root load carrying capacity under fully reversed bending load, a back-to-back test rig is required. Back-to-back test rigs usually have speeds of n = 3,000 rpm, which makes investigations in the UHCF range take a very long time. Therefore, a high-speed back-to-back test rig was developed.

Hexagon offers a three-part E-mobility webinar series highlighting the use of engineering simulation tools and methods to rapidly evaluate numerous ePowertrain designs. This webinar series will showcase how an EV gearbox is designed from scratch and developed to meet design requirements.

Within the last decade, hard finishing technologies become highly relevant. Increasing the power density of a gearbox requires precisely machined gears without heat distortions. Especially in noise-sensitive applications, both honing and grinding are often applied.