Alignment of wind turbines

Easy-Laser has for many years been one of the leading suppliers of measurement and alignment systems for the wind power industry, both for shaft/coupling alignment and flatness measurement of tower flanges. Our customers are some of the world's largest manufacturers of wind turbines, such as Vestas, Siemens/Gamesa, Envision, Goldwind amongst others. Here are some examples of what we offer.

Alignment of generator and gearbox

Standard shaft alignment systems or specially adapted OEM variants are used here. The latter are designed to fit a turbine manufacturer's specific dimensions of the couplings on a large number of turbine variants in their range. They are designed to be used with the coupling removed and the rotor locked, as this is the safest for the operator.

Easy-Laser's standard system is used on other coupling designs and where it is considered safe to leave the coupling in place. They are intended both for installation and for continuous maintenance work in the field, and are therefore well suited to the requirements of service companies.  

Learn more about our shaft alignment systems for wind turbines.

Flatness measurement of tower flanges

If flatness measurement of the flanges is difficult depends, among other things, on the diameter of the tower. Smaller diameters (up to 4 meters) are usually straightforward to measure. But large diameters, especially large offshore towers, require a different approach.

Our patented sectional measurement software is ideal to use in this case. With this method, the flange is measured as four sections, which are then mathematically combined for a complete result. There are two main advantages to this: the measurement is not affected by the flange being deformed by its own weight (gravitational impact). It also makes the work safer for the technician, who does not have to stand on a high ladder or platform – all measurement takes place from ground level. See more in this video.

You can measure up to 5 circles with measuring points per flange, and check not only the flatness but also the angle ("taper") of the flange relative to the flange plane for correct joining of the tower sections. Immediately after completing the measurement, you can view the result as a 3D image in the display unit and evaluate the results with different best-fit calculations for possible further processing. This can be done directly on site, without having to use a PC with a separate analysis programs, which streamlines the work.

Two systems can be used for flange measurement: Easy-Laser® E910 or E915. They are basically the same, but the E915 features a laser transmitter with a rotating head.

Parallelism measurement of tower flanges

Both tower section flanges need to be parallel. System Easy-Laser® E910 is most suitable to measure this. Laser transmitters and an angular prism are then placed on a tripod next to the tower section. 

Flatness measurement of flanges on blades and blade hubs

The flanges on the blade and the blade attachment to the hub should also be flat. This is checked using same type of measurement equipment as for tower flanges, i.e. Easy-Laser® E910 or Easy-Laser® E915.

Other types of measurements

  • Checking plane-parallelism of bed plate for nacelle machine installations.
  • Checking the flatness and horizontal plane of the wind turbine's ground base.
    (See example from Raggovidda, Norway, in this movie from Veidekke.)