17.03.2010

Broshuis and Vestas team up

When the world’s leading wind turbine company, Vestas was developing its new 3MW turbine, the V112, it looked long and hard at the loading and transportation of components from factory to site. Both to make it easier and to reduce the damage that can often occur during shipment by land, sea or air.

As part of this programme it teamed up with Dutch trailer manufacturer Broshius to design trailers for land transportation. Gunnar K. Storgaard Pedersen of Vestas Technology R&D and Piet van Urk of Broshuis worked together running through a large number of concepts, only a few of which reached the prototype status and fewer still that will make it into production.

Pedersen said: ”Broshuis was not only chosen for its experience, but its willingness to innovate and not to be afraid to think outside of the box. They have close ties with several wind turbine transport companies that have led to concepts such as: the triple trailer, triple wing carrier and the blade transport trailer. All examples of the kind of thinking that we at Vestas, were looking for”

The first three concepts are:

Concept one: Tower sections and nacelle transporter

Broshuis decided on an eight axle semi to transport the tower sections and the nacelle. One of the benefits of the V112 is, that the nacelle has a transport height of only 3.4 metres.

The trailer also has a recess to support the tower sections. Normally a modular trailer is used for the nacelle and the tower sections partially due to the height restrictions. So Broshuis gave the trailer the ability to drop the deck to pass under low overhead obstructions. The company also designed a simple jacking system to load and unload the nacelle without the need for cranes.
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The nacelle and tower transport trailer

Concept two: Wind blade transporter

Broshuis has also developed a 53 metre long blade transporter for the V112 which is based on a standard trailer.
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The blade transporter includes a sliding device that allows the combined overall length of tractor and trailer to be used.

Concept three: Wind blade transport system

One of the problems with the transport of long blades is their length, Vestas and Broshuis is looking for a solution, where the blades can slide whilst on the loaded trailer in order to allow a front and rear overhang while on straight runs, with the ability to move on the trailer bed when taking tight turns where obstacles are present.
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The blade lifting device and slider

This concept has been tested with a transport contractor and show to work, the company is now refining the concept in order to make it user friendly and less costly to produce.