ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
MACHINING SOLUTIONS FOR ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
Power generation, whether from fossil fuels or renewable energy sources, involves specific critical components that transfer the power source into electricity. Turbines, hubs, shafts, bearings, rotors, and gearboxes are as essential to alternative energy production as traditional fossil-fuel power generation. Plant Machine Works has made its name machining these and other mechanical parts for various applications in multiple industries.
With renewable energy emerging as the most critical industry for the future, PMW offers its considerable machining expertise to those engaged in hydroelectric, wind, and solar power generation.
MACHINING FOR WIND POWER
Of all the forms of renewable energy currently in use and development worldwide, the most promising seems to be wind turbines. Though conceptually straightforward, wind turbines are challenging to engineer and machine, primarily due to their size, high precision and complexity, and the environmental conditions they must withstand.
The typical wind turbine has over 8,000 components, including many requiring machining at extremely tight tolerances. Even more challenging, some of the most critical and precise wind turbine components are massive in scale, like rotor blades that average 200 feet in length. Considering the constant exposure to the elements, the wear on wind turbine blades is significant (especially when the slightest deviation in blade geometry can result in a subtle vibration that could grow exponentially worse quickly). Equally large and no less intricate are the rotors and gearboxes involved. All components must be maintained and repaired, when necessary, by experts like the ones you will find at Plant Machine Works.
SOLAR AND HYDRO POWER MACHINING
Though wind is considered the most environmentally friendly renewable energy source, solar is by far the most prevalent and accessible in the United States. The photovoltaic panel systems installed on the rooftops of millions of American homes are constructed with minimal machined parts. On the industrial scale, however, at municipal solar power plants, electricity is generated by traditional steam turbines. The steam is created by Concentrated Solar-thermal Power (CSP) when pipes filled with water are heated by thermal energy captured from sunlight. CSP would not be possible without pumps, turbines, and other machined components for which Plant Machine Works is widely known.
The original renewable power source, hydroelectric, has been around for generations. While restricted to powering places near major rivers and impacted by weather and drought, the clean electricity provided by hydroelectric power plants has profoundly improved the lives of countless people throughout the world. Plant Machine Works proudly makes, maintains, and repairs parts for turbines, generators, pumps, and more–all essential machined components that PMW builds and repairs daily.