The efficiency of the plants is crucial for the success of solar energy. For optimum energy output of solar thermal power plants, thousands of heliostats must be precisely adjusted to the position of the sun. Throughout the entire day, from dawn till dusk, the heliostat gear units work at highest precision. Thus, the products of AUMA Drives contribute to the success of the energy turnaround.
Slewing gear unit DRW 100 with integral primary planetary gearing
In 2014, AUMA Drives provided more than 80,000 high precision gear units for the largest solar thermal power plant at that time, IVANPAH, California. The slewing gear unit with primary planetary gearing was specially developed for this project. Apart from the development, the complete production was done in Coswig. A new production line perfectly adapted to the project requirements was designed by the AUMA Drives experts.
Since then, the gear units have performed precise alignment of the heliostats to the solar thermal tower plant. They have been designed for decades of service life at both minimum gear backlash and maintenance efforts.
Self-locking design for transmission ratios ranging between i=52 and i=60
Optimum design at minimised circumferential backlash (<1 mrad) at utmost rigidity
Maintenance-free for a scheduled service life of 25 years
Integral planetary gearing with a transmission ratio of i=211
Quantity for projects >10,000 units can be implemented.