Claims:We Claim:

1. A turning device (12) for turning a brake disk (12), comprising
- a support frame (13),
- two drive pinions (14) arranged on opposite sides of the support frame (13),
- a pin (15), for receiving a drive mechanism, arranged at each drive pinion (14) and
- at least one endless belt (16), for driving a brake disk (27), arranged on the two drive pinions (14),
wherein in driving position the at least one endless belt (16) is arranged to the brake disk (27) in such a way that a surface of one endless belt (16) con-tacting one surface of the brake disk (27) for applying frictional force to the brake disk (27) and to turn this.

2. The turning device (12) according to claim 1, characterized by a drive mechanism for driving at least one pin (15), wherein the drive mechanism is an electric motor, a hydraulic motor, a pneumatic motor, a crank mechanism, a torque wrench or a drilling machine.

3. The turning device (12) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by one endless belt (16), wherein in driving position the endless belt (16) partly touches an outer peripheral surface of the brake disk.

4. The turning device (12) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by two endless belts (16), wherein in driving position one of the endless belts (16) partly touches a circular area of the brake disk (27) and the other endless belt (16) touches partly the opposite circular area of the brake disk (27).

5. The turning device (12) according to claim 4, characterized by a pressing mechanism (17) for pressing the two endless belts (16) against the corre-sponding surface.

6. The turning device (12) according to claim 5, characterized in that the pressing mechanism (17) comprises
- a pressure adjustment element (18) for adjusting a pressure force,
- two adjusting shafts (19) for adjusting pressure force to a lever (20), wherein the adjusting shafts (19) are connected with the pressure adjust-ment element (18) and extending in opposite directions along a middle axis of the pressure adjustment element (18),
- two levers (20) or direct acting hydraulic actors for applying pressure force to at least one roller (21), wherein one lever (20) is mounted to one adjusting shaft (19) and to the support frame (13) of the turning device (12) for providing a joint and
- on each lever (20) at least one roller (21), for applying pressure force to the endless belt (16), is installed.

7. The turning device (12) according to claim 6, characterized in that the pressure adjustment element (18) is a hand wheel.

8. The turning device (12) according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that for increasing the frictional area the at least one roller (21) is arranged in a roller-guiding part (22), wherein on each lever (20) is installed one roller-guiding part (22).

9. A turning arrangement (26) comprises a turning device (12) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the turning device (12) is arranged to a brake disk (27) of the wind turbine (1).

10. A wind turbine (1) comprises the turning arrangement (25) according to claim 9.

Dated this 28th day of July, 2021
For Suzlon Energy Limited

Akriti Kapoor
(IN/PA/2531)
AZB & Partners
Authorized Agent of the applicant

To,
The Controller of Patents
The Patent Office
Mumbai

, Description:FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a turning device for turning a brake disk of a wind turbine, a turning arrangement consisting said turning device and a wind turbine comprising said turning arrangement.

BACKGROUND

Due to increasing size of wind turbines it becomes more and more difficult to turn the rotor in balanced or imbalanced condition to reach the exact rotor locking po-sition. There are several concepts of turning gears and turn drives for the drive train of a wind turbine. The most common system is to mount a gearbox powered by an electric or hydraulic motor to the fast shaft or intermediate shaft of the gear-box of the wind turbine to turn the rotor. The most common attachment point for a turning gear is the brake disc. One disadvantage of the known system is that only a small contact area is provided, which increases the stress of the component e.g. the brake disk.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a turning device which overcomes the disadvantages of the systems known from the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This object is solved by the present turning device, which is described in detail below.

The turning device for turning a brake disk, comprising a support frame, two drive pinions arranged on opposite sides of the support frame, a pin for receiving a drive mechanism arranged at each drive pinion and at least one endless belt for driving a brake disk arranged on the two drive pinions, wherein in driving position the at least one endless belt is arranged to the brake disk in such a way that a surface of one belt contacting one surface of the brake disk for applying frictional force to the brake disk to turn this.

This allows that the area to transmit the tangential forces via friction will be in-creased with this invention, whereby the stress to the parts will be decreased and higher torques can be transmitted.

In content of the present invention driving position means that the turning device is installed and could apply frictional force to the brake disk of the wind turbine via the at least one endless belt.

Advantageously, in a preferred embodiment, the endless belt could also be a chain. More advantageously, the belt respectively chain consist of a material hav-ing a high frictional coefficient like a polymer e.g. polyamide (PA), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyether ether ketone (PEEK), polysulfone (PSU), a rubber, sintered organic or anorganic material (brake pad material) or etc.

In particular, the support frame has a U-shape. More in particular the at least one roller is mounted at the branch of the U.

In a preferred embodiment of the turning device, a drive mechanism for driving at least one pin is provided, wherein the drive mechanism is an electric motor, a hy-draulic motor, a pneumatic motor, a crank mechanism, a torque wrench or a drill-ing machine.

In a preferred embodiment of the turning device, one endless belt is provided, wherein in driving position the belt partly touches an outer peripheral surface of the brake disk.

In a preferred embodiment of the turning device, two endless belts are provided, wherein in driving position one of the belts partly touches a circular area of the brake disk and the other belt touches partly the opposite circular area of the brake disk.

Advantageously, this provides a better balance of force. The risk of a deformation or a damage of the brake disk is reduced respectively excluded.

In a preferred embodiment of the turning device, a pressing mechanism, for press-ing the two belts against the corresponding surface, is provided.

In a preferred embodiment of the turning device, the pressing mechanism com-prises a pressure adjustment element for adjusting a pressure force, two adjusting shafts for adjusting pressure force to a lever, wherein the adjusting shafts are con-nected with the pressure adjustment element and extending in opposite directions along a middle axis of the pressure adjustment element, two levers or direct acting hydraulic actors for applying pressure force to at least one roller, wherein one lever is mounted to one adjusting shaft and to the support frame of the turning device for providing a joint and on each lever at least one roller, for applying pressure force to the endless belt and guiding this, is installed.

Advantageously, in case of more than one roller, in particular more than three rollers, the rollers guiding the endless belt in a curved shape. Thus, the frictional area is more increased.

In a preferred embodiment of the turning device, the pressure adjustment element is a hand wheel. This handwheel can also compromise a torque limiter to provide a defined clamping force of the friction pads of the belt. Due to this mechanism the belt drive also acts as a slip clutch, which protects the drive train from overload conditions due to wind gusts or other external forces.

In a preferred embodiment of the turning device, for increasing the frictional area the at least one roller is arranged in a guiding part, wherein on each lever is in-stalled one guiding part.

Advantageously, the guiding part has a curved shape for guiding the endless belt in a curved shape. Thus, the frictional area is increased.

A further aspect of the invention is directed to a turning arrangement.

The turning arrangement comprises the foresaid turning device according to one of the embodiments, wherein the turning device is arranged to a brake disk of the wind turbine.

Advantageously, the brake disk is mounted to the high-speed shaft (generator shaft) or to low-speed shaft (rotor shaft).

A further aspect of the invention is directed to a wind turbine.

The wind turbine comprises the foresaid turning arrangement.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The invention will now be explained in more detail with respect to exemplary embodiments with reference to the enclosed drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 a wind turbine (prior art),

Figure 2 a perspective view of the turning device,

Figure 3 a side-view of the turning device according to Fig. 2,

Figure 4 a rear-view of the turning device according to Fig. 2,

Figure 5 a front-view of the turning device according to Fig. 2,

Figure 6 a top-view of the turning device according to Fig. 2,

Figure 7 a perspective view of a turning arrangement,

Figure 8 a side-view of the turning arrangement according to Fig. 7,

Figure 9 a rear-view of the turning arrangement according to Fig. 7,

Figure 10 a front-view of the turning arrangement according to Fig. 7 and

Figure 11 a top-view of the turning arrangement according to Fig. 7.

The foregoing and other aspects will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompany-ing drawing figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Figure 1 depicts a schematic view of a wind turbine (1) with a tower (2) and a nacelle (3). Depending on given requirements the wind turbine (1) can be used for offshore or onshore applications. The nacelle (3) is rotatable mounted on the tower (2). The nacelle (3) incorporates a number of components of a drive train chain (4) comprising a rotor shaft (not shown) for example. The nacelle (3) also incorporates a generator (not shown) connected with a plurality of electrical components (not shown), which are described in detail later. Further, the nacelle (3) comprises a yaw system (not shown) for rotating the nacelle (3). Said rotor shaft is connected to a rotor (5). Latter comprises three rotor blades (6) which are mounted to a hub (7) having a hub body (not shown). The hub (7) is connected to the rotor shaft of the drive train chain (4). The rotor blades (6) are adjustably mounted on the hub body. This is realized by means of pitch drives (8), said pitch drives (8) being part of a pitch system (not shown). The pitch system controls the rotor speed to given set points. By means of pitch-drives (8), the rotor blades (6) may be moved about a rotor blade (6) axes into different pitch positions, said rotor blade (6) axis extending in an axial direction of the rotor blades (6). The nacelle (3) is covered by a nacelle cover (9), which has a nacelle cover interface (10). The hub body is covered by a spinner (11).

Figures 2 to 6 depicts a turning device (12) comprises a support frame (13), two drive pinions (14) arranged on opposite sides of the support frame (13). From each of the drive pinion (14) extends a pin (15) for receiving a drive mechanism (not shown), wherein the drive pinion (14) is a gear wheel. Further, the turning device (12) comprises two endless belts (16) for driving a brake disk, wherein the endless belts (16) are arranged on the two drive pinions (14), which drives the endless belts (16). For driving the endless belts (16) the drive mechanism (not shown) is arranged to the pins (15), so the drive pinions (14) will be rotating and in result also the endless belts (16) will be driven. The drive mechanism could be an electric motor, a hydraulic motor, a pneumatic motor, a crank mechanism, a torque wrench or a drilling machine.

Further, the turning device (12) comprises a pressing mechanism (17) for pressing the two endless belts (16) against the corresponding surface of the brake disk (not shown). The pressing mechanism (17) comprises a pressure adjustment element (18) in form of a hand wheel for adjusting a pressure force, two adjusting shafts (19) for adjusting pressure force to a lever (20), wherein the adjusting shafts (19) are connected with the pressure adjustment element (18) and extending in oppo-site directions along a middle axis of the pressure adjustment element (18), two levers (20) for applying pressure force to a plurality of rollers (21), wherein one lever (20) is mounted to one adjusting shaft (19) and to the support frame (13) of the turning device (12) for providing a joint and on each lever (20). The plurality of rollers (21) for applying pressure force to the endless belt (16) is installed in a roller-guiding part (22). This roller-guiding part (22) is arranged at each of the lever (20), so that there are two roller-guiding parts (22). Neighboring to each of the roller-guiding part (22) is arranged a belt-guiding part (23) for guiding the endless belt (16) along a guiding path.

As can best be seen in Fig. 2, the support frame (13) has a U-shaped design and having a recess (24) at the rear-side. The drive pinions (14) are arranged at the upper as well as at the lower side of the U-shaped support frame (13). According to this, also the pins (15) as well as a mounted drive mechanism (not shown) are arranged at the upper and lower side of the U-shaped support frame (13). The pressing mechanism (17) is preferred arranged between the drive pinions (14) in such a way that the hand wheel (18) is arranged at the rear-side of the support frame (13) and the roller-guiding part (22) is arranged at the front-side of the sup-port frame (13). From the middle axis of the hand wheel (18) are extending ad-justing shafts (19) in each direction. The adjusting shafts (19) are preferred de-signed as a combination of threaded rods (19a) and threaded sleeves (19b), where-in latter are hand wheel-sided arranged and the threaded rods (19b) are lever-sided arranged. So the adjusting shafts (19) connecting the hand wheel (18) with the lever (20). Furthermore, latter are connected on the opposite side with the roller-guiding part (22). For realizing a change in the direction of the movement the lever (20) is also connected via a bearing (25) to the support frame (13) at the side of this. This means by rotating the hand wheel (18) in one direction the length of the adjusting shafts (19) will be increase and rotating the hand wheel (18) in opposite direction the length of the adjusting shafts (19) will be decrease. While increasing the length of the adjusting shafts (19) the levers (20) will push the roller-guiding parts (22) to the endless belts (16). So the applied frictional force to the brake disk will be increased. To decrease this frictional force the hand wheel (18) has to rotate in opposite direction so that the length of the adjusting shafts (19) will be decrease and in result the roller-guiding parts (22) will be pulled from the endless belts (16).

As can best be seen at Fig. 3 at the roller-guiding part (22) the plurality of rollers (21) is mounted. Each roller is fixed with a fixing element like a pin or something else. The roller-guiding part (22) has a curved shape for applying pressing force from the lever (20) to the endless belt (16). Further, the belt-guiding part (23) is mounted on the roller-guiding part (22), wherein the belt-guiding part (23) has also a curved shape for guiding the endless belt (16) and increasing the frictional area on the surface of the brake disk.

In following with Fig. 3 and Fig. 5 the path of the endless belt (16) should be de-scribed in detail, which applies for both endless belts (16). According to Fig. 3 the path of the endless belt (16) envelops a concave surface, in this way that at the side of the support frame (13) the path of the endless belt (16) is parallel to the support frame (13) and at the side of the roller-guiding part (22) the endless belt (16) follows the curved shape of the belt-guiding part (23) so that the path of the endless belt (16) is curved in direction to the support frame (13). According to Fig. 5 at the same time the roller-guiding parts (22) will guide the endless belts (16) in a curved direction to each other.

The endless belts (16) can be manufactured from several materials. However, the material should have the following properties, namely flexible, ductile and a high friction coefficient.

Figures 7 to 11 depict a turning arrangement (26) comprising a turning device (12) according to Figs 2 to 6 and a brake disk (27). Latter can be arranged to the low-speed shaft (not shown) or the high-speed shaft (not shown) of the drive train chain (4) of the wind turbine (1). The turning device (12) can be mounted to the brake caliper (not shown). The brake disk (27) itself is arranged once between the driving pinion (14) and twice between the endless belts (16).

In driving position the endless belts (16) are arranged to the brake disk (27) in such a way that a surface of each endless belt (16) contacting the neighboring sur-face of the brake disk (27) for applying frictional force to the brake disk (27) and to turn this.

Referring now to the Figs. 8 and 10, enhanced with them the path of the endless belts (16) and to apply frictional force to the brake disk (27) should be explained. This mainly corresponds to the above described path according to Fig. 3 and 5. According to Fig. 8 the curvature radius of the belt-guiding part (23) is the same as of the brake disk (27). As can be best seen in Fig. 10 and 11, because of the roller-guiding part (22) presses the endless belt (16) against the neighboring sur-face of the brake disk (27) the endless belt (16) appeals frictional force to the sur-face of the brake disk (27). Therefore the brake disk (27) will be turned and at the same time the low-speed or high-speed shaft (not shown) of the wind turbine (1) will also turned. So both roller-guiding parts (22) will press the corresponding endless belt (16) to the neighbored surface of the brake disk (27). With help of the pressure adjustment element (18) the applied force can be regulated in such a way that the more force is applied to the endless belts (16) through the roller (21) of the roller-guiding part (22), the higher the appealed frictional force on the brake disk (27). Hereby shows one advantage of the shown embodiment. By using two endless belts (16), each of the endless belts (16) applying beside friction force also a traverse force to the brake disk (27), wherein the applied traverse forces coun-teracts to each other so that no transverse forces will be acting to the brake disk (27) but rather only frictional force. In event of using only one endless belt (16) also traverse force will be acting on the brake disk (27) so the brake disk (27) can be deformed.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

1 wind turbine
2 tower
3 nacelle
4 drive train chain
5 rotor
6 rotor blades
7 hub
8 pitch drive
9 nacelle cover
10 interface
11 spinner
12 turning device
13 support frame
14 drive pinion
15 pin
16 endless belt
17 pressing mechanism
18 pressure adjustment element
19 adjusting shaft
19a threaded rod
19b threaded sleeve
20 lever
21 plurality of rollers
22 roller-guiding part
23 belt-guiding part
24 recess
25 bearing
26 turning arrangement
27 brake disk