General Electric Company

Xianglei Chen

Wendy Wen-Ling Lin

Stephen Bertram Johnson

Robert Michael Zirin

Peggy Lynn Baehmann

Shu Ching Quek

Bowden Kirkpatrick

Thomas Edenfeld

Andre Langel

Youdong Zhou

Grama Narasimhaprasad Praveen

Srikanth Samudrala

Gang Qian

Douglas C Klein

Stephan Kluemper

A slip ring system for a wind turbine for electrically connecting a first electrical device and a second electrical device, wherein the first electrical device is mounted to a rotor of the wind turbine, and the second electrical device is mounted to a nacelle of the wind turbine, is provided. The slip ring system comprises a slip ring apparatus and a rotational damping apparatus, with which an electrical connection between the first electrical device and the second electrical device can be established. The slip ring apparatus has a rotatable component with a rotatable electrode and a non-rotatable support electrode, wherein the rotatable electrode is electrically connected to the first electrical device, and the support electrode is electrically connected to the second electrical device. The non-rotatable support electrode and the rotatable electrode are arranged with respect to each other's position and configured such that an electrical connection can be established between the non-rotatable support electrode and the rotatable electrode. The rotational damping apparatus connects the turbine rotor and the slip ring apparatus. The rotational damping apparatus prevents vibrations at least partially from migrating into the rotatable component. The rotational damping apparatus comprises a slip ring portion, a shaft portion and a damping portion. The slip ring portion is mounted to the rotatable component and the shaft portion is adapted for being mechanically connected to the turbine rotor for rotating with the turbine rotor.

Slip ring system for a wind turbine wind turbine and a method for producing electrical energy

Transportation assemblies for rotor blades are provided. A transportation assembly includes a protection cap including a nose portion and a plurality of sidewall portions extending from the nose portion, the protection cap having a generally U-shaped cross-sectional profile. The transportation assembly further includes a restraint assembly including a first protrusion and a second protrusion each extending from the protection cap, the first protrusion and the second protrusion spaced apart along a width of the protection cap.

Transportation assembly for rotor blade

A turbine blade includes at least two blade segments. Each blade segment includes first and second shells joined together, a base region, at least one joint region including a mating face. Each of the first and second shells includes an outer skin, a base spar cap attached to an inner surface of the outer skin in the base region, a joint spar cap attached to the inner surface of the outer skin in the joint region and adjacent to at least a portion of the base spar cap. The joint spar cap includes holes in the mating face of the joint region. The turbine blade further includes fasteners within the holes for securing the at least two blade segments together.

Turbine blade and method of fabricating the same

Growing community of inventors

Simpsonville, SC, United States of America

Xianglei Chen