Archive
WIND ENERGY. Latest published applications 2017-2019. Torque transmission elements
Summary
Wind energy refers to the process of creating electricity using the wind or air flows that occur naturally in the atmosphere of the earth. Wind turbines typically include a rotor with large blades driven by the wind, which convert the kinetic energy of the wind into rotational mechanical energy. The mechanical energy is usually transmitted to one or more generators to produce electrical power. To do so, a power transmission system, sometimes called a "power train", to process and convert the rotational mechanical energy, is included in the design of a turbine. Often the rotational speed of the wind turbine rotor needs to be increased to the speed required by the generator(s). This is achieved by a gearbox between the wind turbine rotor and generator, which is part of the drive train and converts a low-speed, high-torque input from the wind turbine rotor into a lower-torque, higher-speed output for the generator. There are particular problems involved in designing these elements for wind turbines due to the magnitude, variety, and unpredictability of forces experienced by the wind turbine rotor and drive train, which have the potential to damage bearings and other gearbox components. Some manufacturers address this concern by designing power transmission systems without a gearstage. There, the wind turbine rotor directly drives a low-speed generator. However, the lack of a gearstage often causes further issues, such as generator size, which are typically larger than in geared solutions. The size is also responsible for transportation, assembly, and maintenance problems, in addition to cost concerns. Moreover, low-speed generators sometimes rely on permanent magnets incorporating rare earth materials, which are costly. The applications presented in this bulletin try to address some of the aforementioned issues.
The proposed bulletin is dedicated torque transmission elements in wind power and includes patent applications published in 2017-2019. Research methodology is available on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. The patent bulletin includes 801 patent documents. The applications were registered in 24 patent offices around the world. 203 applicants from 20 countries participated in the development of the inventions. 340 subgroups of the International Patent Classification were encountered in the patent documents.
Key Highlights
The bulletin contains statistical data on the distribution of patent documents by years, by patent offices and by applicant countries, applicant-related data (residents and non-residents), data on the most frequently mentioned International Patent Classification divisions (sections, classes, subclasses, groups, and subgroups). The top three patent offices that registered the largest number of patent applications were CNIPA (CN), EPO and USPTO (US).
For each of the patent documents selected for the examination in the present bulletin the characteristics of unified indicators were preliminary defined, they include: technical problems, types of inventive solutions employed, belonging to one or other technological segment. This allows the internal content for each of the indicators in the aggregate array of documents to be visualized, for instance, to define the sequence and proportional correlation of technical problems the inventive solutions disclosed in the texts aim to solve. A list of the top 10 groups consisting of patent documents with identical unified indicators contains ID numbers and applicant names of respective documents; the groups are sorted by the number of patent documents.
Data is provided for each of the top 10 applicants, leading in terms of the number of published patent documents among the ones examined in the bulletin, illustrating their share in the established intellectual property market, distribution of applications by problems, IPC sections, patent offices and technology indicators. Representatives of Germany prevail among the patenting leaders in the examined period of time, including: Vestas Wind Systems A/S (DK), Wobben Properties GmbH (DE), General Electric (US), Siemens AG (DE), Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen AG (DE), Adwen GMBH (DE), Flender Gmbh (DE), Miba Gleitlager Gmbh (AT), Senvion Deutschland GmbH (DE), Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy A/S (DK).
The bulletin contains lists of the top 10 prominent patent applications having the highest bibliographical rating, the most extensive coverage of IPC sections, and those not being part of a patent family.
The conclusive part of the bulletin represents the lists of all of the documents reviewed, arranged by the top 10 groups of patent documents with identical unified indicators and by patent offices with the indication of the ID numbers of the registered patent applications.
Who needs this bulletin?
The proposed patent statistics bulletin allows the existing trends in the intellectual property market of the specified industrial sector to be timely traced, as well as the possibility of acquiring a carefully selected list of patent documents fully corresponding to the specified subject. The bulletin can be useful for inventors, engineers, scientific workers, and business representatives, who are focused on the development of wind power.
