Precise low cost chain gears for heliostats

Liedke, Phillip; Lewandowski, Arkadiusz; Pfahl, Andreas; Hölle, Erwin

doi:10.1063/1.4949038

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…One of the wheels is driven for the azimuthal movement. A cheap but precise chain gear allows the use of a small low cost gear motor [2]. The wheels are weighted to prevent the wheels from slippage and the system from lifting during wind gusts.…”

Section: Azimuth Drivementioning

confidence: 99%

First lay-down heliostat with monolithic mirror-panel, closed loop control, and cleaning system

Pfahl¹,

Rheinländer²,

Krause³

et al. 2019

SOLARPACES 2018: International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems

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The first lay-down heliostat with monolithic concentrator was erected at the Solar Tower Jülich. The main components and their main features are described: azimuth and elevation drive, concentrator, control, and the cleaning system concept. The dimensions of the elevation drive and the carriage already match the requirements of a 50 m² heliostat that shall be developed in a follow-up project.SolarPACES 2018 AIP Conf.

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Section: Azimuth Drivementioning

confidence: 99%

First lay-down heliostat with monolithic mirror-panel, closed loop control, and cleaning system

Pfahl¹,

Rheinländer²,

Krause³

et al. 2019

SOLARPACES 2018: International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems

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“…The first rim is guided by a first pair of rolls mounted directly at the pylon near the drive unit and by a second one mounted at a cantilever arm connected to the top of the pylon. The drive system has been improved by the following points: A chain sprocket arrangement was developed which avoids fluctuating tension in the chain caused by the polygon effect [3] and with bigger chains for reduced elasticity. The first rim is guided at the side of the pylon to avoid an opening in the pylon for higher stiffness.…”

Section: Generalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During the previous generations the drive system has evolved from a cable drive unit with winch wheel [1] to a chain wheel drive [3]. As the winch wheel was considered to be relatively complex in mounting and not suitable for upscaling, chains and other gear options have been investigated [4].…”

Section: Evolution Of Chain Gearmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Chain gears have the following advantages: low back lash (if pretensioned), potentially low cost (mass products), and capability to withstand high forces over a wellknown lifetime (for example in combustion engines). Nevertheless, chain drives have disadvantages, such as: induced stresses and velocity variations due to the polygon effect [3], potentially complex requirements for weather protection system or maintenance, and lengthening due to elasticity and wear.…”

Section: Evolution Of Chain Gearmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At rim drive heliostats, the accuracy requirements and the wind loads on the drive units are comparably low because of the long lever arms of the rims which significantly reduces the the demand for strong mechanical structure and precision of the drives compared to conventional heliostats. Previous developments of a rim drive heliostat have been presented in [1], [2] and [3]. Here, investigations of the dynamic wind load behavior and the improvements of the 3 rd rim drive heliostat generation are presented ( Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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3rd generation rim drive heliostat with monolithic sandwich panel

Liedke

Pfahl

Vásquez-Arango

et al. 2018

AIP Conference Proceedings

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The improvements of the mechanical structure of the current rim drive heliostat generation with chain drive system and monolithic sandwich structure is described. The improvements of the mechanical structure result in increased torsional stiffness of the pylon, reduced manufacturing effort, increased life time of the chain gears, and better access to the drives. Dynamic wind loads were determined by loading a transient finite element model with pressure distribution time series gained by wind tunnel tests. Due to the rims, the heliostat shows significantly better dynamic behavior than conventional heliostats without rims.

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Progress in heliostat development

Pfahl

Coventry

Röger³

et al. 2017

Solar Energy

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141

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Strong efforts are being made to drive heliostat cost down. These efforts are summarised to give an update on heliostat technology comprising: determination of wind loads, heliostat dimensioning, solutions for the different sub-functions of a heliostat, a review of commercially available and prototype heliostat designs, canting, manufacturing, qualification, heliostat field layout, and mirror cleaning. There is evidence that commercial heliostat costs have dropped significantly in the past few years, with commercial suppliers of heliostat technologies now claiming heliostat field costs around 100 USD/m 2. With new approaches even target cost of 75$/m² seem to be realistic.

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Precise low cost chain gears for heliostats

Cited by 6 publications

References 2 publications

First lay-down heliostat with monolithic mirror-panel, closed loop control, and cleaning system

First lay-down heliostat with monolithic mirror-panel, closed loop control, and cleaning system

3rd generation rim drive heliostat with monolithic sandwich panel

Progress in heliostat development

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