At its Rostock production site, Nordex is now employing additional test rigs to check numerous core components of the Generation Gamma and Generation Delta wind turbines under laboratory conditions as well.
The company scrutinises the entire turbine systems right from the development phase at the Nordex technical centre “Technikum”, whose floor area has now been extended to 3,900 square metres, plus the rotor blade testing facility with a floor area of an additional 2,400 square metres. Last year, Nordex invested € 3.5 million in extensions to the modern “Technikum”, developing new testing facilities. 15 different testing facilities, including an azimuth and motor/vibration test rig, have been installed for testing of the core components fitted to Nordex. In addition, various tests are performed on the blade adjustment system using three different pitch testing systems. The most important new addition is the climate chamber. With a capacity of almost 150 cubic metres and a range from -40°C to +60 °C, it submits the turbine systems to extreme climatic endurance testing. In addition, a relative ambient humidity of 95 percent can be simulated. A further five test benches are devoted solely to tests on slip rings. One of these is also fitted with a climate chamber with a capacity of two cubic metres. With these new test rigs, Nordex is testing the system functions under extreme climatic and mechanical conditions including in the form of long-term endurance tests. A further goal is to increase the pace of development.