The GL ISO 9001 and GL OHSAS 18001 Certifications are granted to Availon GmbH (Germany,) the parent company of Availon North America.
Release Date: 07/27/2011
Location: Des Moines, IA
AVAILON NORTH AMERICA OFFERS A LINE REACTOR UPGRADE TARGETED TO ENHANCE YOUR TURBINE’S PERFORMANCE AND AVAILABILITY
When a wind turbine operates at full capacity, various deficiencies of the standard Line Reactor often lead to its failure due to overheating. The overheating causes resin to seep out between the windings followed by a large short circuit in the power converter cabinet. As a result, the Line Reactor’s purpose of minimizing high frequency harmonics onto the grid, improving power quality, stabilizing output and input current, and providing inductance to fully charge the DC link to its operating voltage is left unfulfilled.
True to the company’s “We Listen” stance, Availon North America’s Electrical Products Support Engineer Weston Smith and Mechanical Product Support Engineer Andrew Engle led a team of specialists in studying the underlying causes of the Line Reactor failures and determined ways to minimize or eliminate them.
The resulting innovations have become the base for the Line Reactor upgrade for GE 1.5 wind turbines. Availon’s new proprietary design features a significantly higher rating of 450 amps vs. the standard 375 amps, assuring increased reliability during full power generation. To prevent short circuits caused by overheating, the line reactor has been redesigned with wider splits between the windings and special brackets with strategically positioned slots to optimize air flow. In addition to these changes, Availon is also offering an upgraded cooling fan kit to be installed in the converter cabinet, which allows for more efficient air movement--yet another way to minimize overheating and reduce wind turbine downtime.
John Boorman, Availon North America Director of Sales, commented: “Over the years Availon has made numerous post-warranty engineering improvements to wind turbines. We are especially proud of the Line Reactor upgrade, because its implementation shows great potential for wind farmers to improve their assets’ availability and enhance profits.”
For more information please e-mail PartsUSA@Availon.com
Availon Inc., a leading independent parts and services provider in North America, specializes in parts and services for GE, Siemens® and Vestas® turbines, and is expanding to other turbine types. In addition to being a primary supplier for SSB and Duradrive parts, Availon Inc. is also an exclusive vendor for Bachmann, Lenord + Bauer, and Convertec parts. The Availon global portfolio includes spare parts supply and management, end of warranty inspections, individual turbine optimization, turbine upgrades, field services, remote monitoring, and operations and maintenance.
Media contact:
Willow Bauer
Phone: 515-986-9101
Email: willow.bauer@availon.com
About Availon
Availon Inc. is a part of the Availon GmbH family. Availon has business units in the USA, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Currently Availon operates throughout North America and Europe, and is expanding into other regions as well.
Availon is the first independent wind turbine service provider to be both ISO 9001 certified and fully certified by Germanischer Lloyd in staff training, troubleshooting and repair processes. By introducing new processes and developing innovative service strategies, the company has managed to consistently increase the availability of its maintained turbines.
