North American Windpower: Diamond-Roltran's New Rotor Assembly Rolls To Avoid Use Of Slip Rings

in News Departments > Products & Technologies

by NAW Staff on Friday 28 December 2012

Diamond-Roltran has just completed its Roll-Ring rotor assembly, which is designed for use with the company's generator collector test platform for wind turbines.

Roll-Rings are designed to help wind farm owners and managers reduce costs and increase uptime by eliminating slip-ring brush and rotor maintenance. And because Roll-Rings do not generate wear debris, they are capable of rolling up to 1 billion revolutions, according to the company.

The Roll-Ring wind collector rotor test assembly has two channels capable of carrying 600 amps each. Each channel has three grooves for Roll-Rings to roll in and conduct power between the stator and rotor assemblies. Each Roll-Ring will run in its own groove and, at three inches in diameter, is capable of conducting 200 amps each. The 62-pound rotor assembly was balanced to 2,000 rpm.

Diamond-Roltran says the next step in the development program is to install the rotor into the stator housing and then install Roll-Rings to conduct current between the rotor and stator conductive grooves. The assembled test unit will be operated at 1,800 rpm with 600 amps fed into one channel, shorted across the rotor posts and then back across the other channel.

Once testing is complete for the two-channel unit, a full-scale commercial prototype will be built. The Roll-Ring wind collector will have three phases capable of 600 amps each and one 600-amp ground leg, the company adds.

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