World's largest slewing drive units for sail system

摘要

Swiss-based Liebherr-Components AG has developed the world's largest slewing drive unit for an innovative sail system from eConowind. The Dutch company has created a sailing system that is intended to revolutionise commercial shipping. Up to 40m in height, metal sails serve as propulsion support for cargo ships. The worlds largest slewing drive units turn these huge sails. Using wind power in this way, fuel costs could be reduced by up to 20%. Liebherr slewing drive units are self-contained systems consisting of a drive and a bearing unit. This makes the components resistant to extreme environmental influences, such as saltwater or dust. Special sealing systems and surface coatings also add to the high resistance of the large components and make them ideal for use at sea. The massive, worm-driven components from Liebherr each measure 1.72m in diameter and together weigh over 1.4 tonnes. This makes the slewing drive units twice as large as any other products available on the market.