Wind Turbine Bolts: Essential Fasteners for Ensuring Wind Power Reliability
Wind turbine bolts are crucial components that serve as the foundation of a turbine’s durability by fastening main components, including blades, hubs, and towers.
While their primary function is to secure components, they enable wind turbines to withstand extreme weather conditions, distribute forces evenly, and perform other vital functions.
Therefore, wind power companies rely on them, making it essential to select the proper one.
Continue reading to see how wind turbine bolts ensure the longevity and reliability of wind power projects!
Understanding the Critical Role of Bolts in MW Wind Turbines
They are frequently used in many kinds of wind turbines, including MW wind turbines, and even those with only three blades will contain approximately 23,000-25,000 of them.
This highlights their importance as they securely link wind turbine’s components such as blade and tower parts while allowing for easy removal and reinstallation for maintenance.
Wind turbine bolts also ensure that the entire structure remains stable and safe even under the most demanding environmental factors, like wind loads or vibrations.
Furthermore, wind turbine bolt designs can help spread forces or loads caused by several factors like whirling blades, severe winds, or when the metal expands and shrinks due to temperature changes.
As a result, properly tightening the bolts prevents wind turbine components from deforming owing to excessive forces, since they are distributed evenly.
Types of Wind Turbine Bolts and Their Specific Applications
- Wind Turbine Anchor Bolts: Foundation Security
Photo by Anyang General International Co., Ltd.
They are long threaded rods that are installed deep inside the wind turbine’s concrete base, with steel bars inside it (reinforcement bars).
Their applications include the following:
- Connect the wind turbine to its concrete base or foundation.
- Attaching additional components (e.g., brake discs, tower parts, locking discs)
- Help the base’s steel bars form a sturdy frame (anchor cage) to distribute the forces of wind and turbine vibrations while holding the whole structure securely.
Like CNRL wind energy fasteners, these bolts are often composed of strong steels such as Alloys, which are known for their strength and longevity.
- Wind Turbine Blade Bolts: Enhanced Structural Integrity
Photo by Maxpro Corporation
Wind turbines usually need 80 to 160 blade bolts, with T-bolts being the most common type used.
This stresses their importance in improving wind turbine blade and hub strength since they provide a strong and reliable connection between the two.
Here are some of their other applications:
- Transfer the force of the blades’ bending and twisting to the hub.
- Hold the rotor blades firmly to the hub even when the wind pulls them.
Moreover, wind turbine bolts are often available in high-strength steels 8.8, 10.9, and 12.9.
- Wind Turbine Gearbox Bolts: Safe Power Transmission
Photo by Nord Lock Group
These wind turbine bolts are used to safely connect gearbox vital components even during strong vibrations when working, such as:
- Flanges
- Planetary Gears
- High-speed shafts
They also keep the gearbox’s components stable, preventing damage from shifting wind forces that can cause them to shake and move in different directions.
The Wind Turbine Fasteners’ Extreme Operating Conditions
Wind turbines are prone to various challenging working environments such as:
- Corrosion
Wind turbines operate outside, sometimes on the sea.
This exposes the wind turbine bolts to harsh circumstances that might cause the metals to rust or corrode, including:
- Moisture
- Saltwater (Salts increase corrosion).
- Wind and temperature variations.
- High loads and Vibrations
Wind turbine bolts experience constant forces or static loads as well as several dynamic loads, including:
- Impact loads: Sudden, powerful forces like gusts of wind or mechanical vibrations.
- Combined bending loads: Forces that bend the components and strain bolts in many directions.
- Transverse shear alternating loads: Sideways forces that push the bolts back and forth.
These may result in fatigue cracks in the bolts, leading them to lose their tight, secure connection to the components.
- Extremely High Or Low Temperatures
Temperatures change between night and day and across seasons.
The frequent variations lead the bolts’ metal to expand and compress repeatedly.
Additionally, excessive heat causes them to “creep,” causing them to gradually stretch or deform over time.
All of these can wear out or deform the wind turbine bolt due to the temperature, causing their metal threads to lose strength.
Importance of High-Strength and Durable Wind Turbine Bolts
Wind turbine bolts face many challenging factors that can weaken their strength and compromise the overall structural integrity of the turbine.
Hence, it is important to use high-strength bolts built particularly to withstand these loads and avoid issues such as loosening and fatigue.
Consider buying wind turbine bolts from manufacturers like CNRL, which provide additional features or customized choices.
These options for wind turbine bolts may include:
- Coatings that enhance Corrosion resistance (e.g., zinc plating, black oxide, and hot-dip galvanizing)
- Durable Materials that have high tensile strength (e.g., Carbon Steel, Alloy Steel, or custom materials)
- And so on
CNRL’s Specialized Fastener Solutions for the Wind Energy Sector
We are offering a full portfolio of wind turbine bolts (M6 – M42 or as required) that can be customized for onshore, offshore, and extreme-climate applications.
As a dedicated OEM supplier in the energy sector, CNRL’s decades of experience since 1996 have enabled us to create high-strength fasteners tailored for wind turbine applications.
We maintain high-quality standards for the reliability of all of our fasteners by complying with numerous certifications, including:
- ISO 14001
- IATF 16949
Furthermore, our modern manufacturing facilities and expertise guarantee that our wind turbine bolts meet the industry’s strict standards for material strength, corrosion resistance, and installation suitability.
Request a product brochure today to learn more about our extensive choice of custom products that will ensure the efficiency and safety of your wind turbine!
