Electromagnetic Braking Systems in Wind Turbines
INTORQ brakes have been in use for many years in wind power installations and special requirements of this field of application are high reliability, long maintenance cycles, resistance to environmental influences and a tight braking-torque tolerance. For pitch drives, we have developed stored-spring brakes as holding brakes that have to display a specific mode of emergency manner even after a failure. The brake casing is encapsulated or suitable for tachometer mounting. In azimuth drives, brakes from our modular BFK458 series are used. They keep the turbine aligned in the wind. In the event of a fault, the brakes have to act as a friction clutch to enable the gondola to move with the wind. In the offshore area, the requirements for corrosion protection and robustness are very high. Encapsulated version with special surface protection are used here.