Increased focus on R&D to improve gearbox

Research and Markets forecasts the global wind turbine gearbox market to grow at a CAGR of 3% with respect to installation capacity during the period 2016-2020.

 

Wind turbine producers and manufacturers are paying a lot of attention to the proactive and preventive maintenance rather than reactive maintenance. Gearboxes are installed with probes, sensors, and filters to monitor the properties of gear oil, such as temperature, viscosity, contamination, and thickness. Condition monitoring plans are primarily functional for offshore turbines as the total cost of reactive maintenance is high when compared with preventive maintenance.

 

According to the report, the gearbox, being a crucial component of a wind turbine, needs to have high reliability. This has not been the case in the past. Increased R&D in gearbox wind technology is mainly focused on solving the reliability issue. The major focus areas of R&D include improvement in gearbox design, quality control at every step of the manufacturing process, and improvement in quality testing procedures and standards. Increased focus on R&D is expected to boost the gearbox system reliability and increase its lifespan. This will boost overall market growth in the future.