Managing Gearbox Failure

The wind industry has had a chronic problem with the reliability of its gearboxes [1], [2]. Experience has shown that premature gearbox failure is a leading maintenance cost driver that can easily consume the profit margin from a wind turbine operation. Condition monitoring is already understood to have potential to mitigate this risk by managing gearbox maintenance through the promises of reliable early detection. Early detection enables the operator to minimize gearbox damage, avoid full failure and plan the repair, thus, simultaneously reducing the repair cost and business interruption costs. Oil debris monitoring for the wind turbine industry is now a proven, effective condition monitoring technique that does provide reliable early detection and quantification of internal damage to gears and bearings of the wind turbine gearbox without the need for expensive hardware or expert data interpretation. GasTOPS has successfully transitioned its MetalSCAN technology from aircraft, marine and power generation gas turbine engine applications to the wind turbine gearbox, and, with hundreds of fielded applications, MetalSCAN is becoming the standard for gearbox condition monitoring.