Bearing Housings CNC Machining for Wind Turbine Systems

Options include anodizing on aluminum for the protection against corrosion, powder coating for environmental protection in custom colors where corrosion resistance exceeds 1000 hours in salt spray tests, zinc plating on steel for rust resistance, black oxide coating on steel for non-reflective surfaces in vision applications, bead blasting for uniform matte texture, and chromate conversion coating for electrical conductivity, while for precision grinding ultra-flat mounting surfaces are made with flatness made 0.003 inches.

Yes, all parts are produced under ISO 9001 certified quality management systems. We adhere to standards pertaining to industrial robotics as well as customized dimensional and material stipulations including surface finish, and structural integrity, covering tolerances, and surface finish of bearing housers, bearing manufacturer installation directives, and complete traceability and documentation for raw materials, quality audits, and continuous improvement for bearing support components, all of which prevent faulty housing designs and machining that can lead to premature failure of the bearing, malfunction of the robot, or downtime of the robot in industrial automation.

Yes, we provide rapid prototyping to verify fit and test assembly, with same-day CAD-to-part capability available for critical projects. For custom automation cells and research platforms, we perform low-volume production of 20 to 500 brackets. For standardized robot models, we perform high-volume production of thousands to tens of thousands of brackets annually, incorporating complete dimensional inspection, flatness verification, and material certifications.

We consistently achieve tolerances of ±0.0005 inches on critical dimensions of bearing housings. This involves ensuring that the bearing bore diameters are controlled within H7 tolerances (±0.0005 to ±0.001 inches depending on bore size) to fit bearings to housings with appropriate clearance and interference adjustments. These involve accurate bore geolocations defined within ±0.001 inches to shaft alignment requirements for perpendicularity, controlling alignment of the shaft, and bore axis perpendicularity to the mounting surface within ±0.001 inches per inch of the bore length to avoid side loading on the bearings. The flatness of the mounting surface within ±0.001 inches of the full area also counters side loading for lateral load-bearings. The required shaft alignment is achieved with concentricity of ±0.0005 inches on multiple bores in single housings. We place our clamp patterns for mounting holes within ±0.003 inch for conformity to common robots and mechanized patterns for interchangeability. Sealing with controlled tolerances for constructed grooves within ±0.002 in, shoulders for axial bearing assemblies, and shoulder dimensions, ensures active removal with designed clearance or interference and axial location of bearings with shafts and ends. These features are designed to effective sealing of contamination to IP54 or IP65 standards, thermal stability to bear and maintain designed shaft clearance at bearing housing to±80 to -20, stabled ranges, then rigid to stiff housing to limit housing deflection to less than 0.001 to maintain alignment of bearing and limit misalignment from shifting/load.

For bearing bores with diameters ranging from 400 to 1200 milimeters and tolerances of ±0.015 in CNC horizontal boring mills are used. Precision face milling meets the requirements of the flatness 0.025 in the drawn areas of excess 1 m2. Through coordinate drilling the bolt patterns are created with an accuracy of ±0.010 in. Even the seal grooves are machined with a depth control of ±0.005. For the stress-relief annealing to be effective the temperature of 550 degrees celcius is used to reduce residual stresses to prevent the changes of the dimension when the bearing is put to use. The sections are welded to each other as requested with the full penetration and inspected by ultrasound as per ASTM A609.

Ductile iron 65-45-12 and 80-55-06 offers strong rigidity which prevents bearing bore distortion for distortion amounts below 0.05 millimeters while under load. Ductile iron also has superior vibration dampening, which reduces the drivetrain's resonance. Ductile iron's cost-effectiveness is a huge advantage, as its housings can weigh anywhere from 500 kilograms to 5000 kilograms. Cast steel GS-52 delivers higher strength 350 MPa and enables ductile iron to have thinner walls which reduces mass, and improves the good weldability so integrated mounting features can be added, and so large offshore turbines can be welded. Welded steel fabrications allow for design flexibility, which also allows for reduced lead time from 30 to 16 weeks. SG iron is utilized for cold-climate applications under -20 degrees as it has the greatest ductility and greater impact toughness.

Wind turbine bearing housings are structural enclosures which support the main shaft bearing housings of wind turbines which can have bore diameters from 400 to 1200mm. These wind turbine bearing housings are also at times referred to or described as nacelle bedplates that support the generator bearing and gearbox input/output shaft bearing housings while transferring the load. These systems can include main bearing housings which support the rotor load ranging from 500 to 5000 kilonewtons with integrated sealing systems, generator bearing pedestals which position the drive-end and non-drive-end bearings, and gearbox torque arms which transmit reaction torque to the bedplate while allowing thermal expansion.