Wind power bearings are considered by the industry to be one of the two parts that are difficult to localize, and the other is the wind power control system. In recent years, my country's wind power bearing industry has gradually formed large-scale and serialized production, the scale of the industry has continued to expand, key technologies have continued to break through, and a batch of reliability tests of technologies and products with independent intellectual property rights have been completed.

■■High-end bearings have become

Wind power equipment manufacturing weakness

Experts in the industry believe that, as one of the important supporting equipment for wind turbines, wind turbine bearings have complex forces and vibrations and must withstand huge shock loads, and the installation costs of yaw and pitch bearings are relatively high. 20-year life span. Due to the harsh working conditions of wind power equipment and the long-life and high-reliability requirements, wind power bearings have high technical complexity and are recognized as one of the two major parts (bearings and control systems) that are more difficult to localize.

Domestic wind power bearings have relied on foreign imports for a long period of time, and they are expensive, which increases the cost of wind power equipment per kilowatt and restricts the reduction of wind power costs. According to experts, among wind power bearings, the technical threshold of yaw bearings and pitch bearings is relatively low, while the technical content of main shaft bearings and speed increaser bearings is relatively high, and generator bearings are basically technically mature general-purpose products. At present, the production capacity of domestic wind power bearing enterprises is mainly concentrated on yaw bearings and variable pitch bearings, and mainly supporting bearings for wind power equipment below 3 MW. For main shaft bearings and speed increaser bearings, they basically rely on imports. Only a few domestic companies Initially set foot.

■■Low-speed wind power field

New requirements for wind turbines

Whether a wind turbine is good or not, the bearing is the core factor. In traditional wind turbines, bearings play the role of "Mr. Key". Because wind turbines are installed at high altitudes, maintenance costs are high, and at the same time, the working environment is relatively harsh and vulnerable to dust, water mist, freezing and other pollution. This requires that the supporting bearings must have high rigidity and high reliability. Meet its 20-year service life requirements.

The low-speed wind power field has more stringent tests on bearings. In recent years, my country has vigorously developed a clean onshore wind power industry and shifted to power load centers such as the southern Middle East. However, due to the low average wind speed and rapid changes in wind speed and direction, new requirements have been placed on wind turbines.

Central and southern China is a typical low wind speed region, located in the power load center. The grid connection conditions are good, but the average wind speed is low, the wind speed and direction change rapidly, and it has the characteristics of low energy density and high turbulence intensity. This requires the energy capture capability of wind turbines. , Especially to be able to withstand random alternating aerodynamic shocks, it is necessary to develop low-speed wind turbines and their supporting bearings in a targeted manner. There is no precedent in the world, and independent innovation is extremely difficult.

■■Independent innovation boost

Lu Bingheng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, believes that the research and development of high-end bearings involves a series of technical problems such as materials, grease and lubrication, manufacturing, design, bearing manufacturing equipment, testing and testing, as well as contact mechanics, lubrication theory, tribology, fatigue and damage, heat treatment and Basic research and interdisciplinary subjects such as material organization. It is necessary to make key layouts in terms of industrial development policies and technological development plans to solve the problem of lagging development of high-end bearings in the equipment manufacturing industry.