- ZF Services celebrates grand opening of Center of Competence for Wind Energy Service in Dortmund
- Workshop for multi-brand servicing and repair inaugurated
- Global wind market poses extremely high demands
Due to its extensive investments in the wind energy sector, ZF Services is very well positioned. The grand opening of the ZF Services Center of Competence for Wind Energy Service in Dortmund and its 4 megawatt load test rig represents an important step toward the future. Together with employees, customers from home and abroad as well as politicians and local businesspeople celebrated its grand opening at the end of June. In addition to the repair business, the Center of Competence will act as the hub of a global network of existing and future wind energy service centers in Europe, North America, and China.
“ZF Services has so far invested more than € 9 million in the Dortmund hub of its wind energy activities and already has expansion plans in the next few years,” said Martin Müller, member of the ZF Services board during the opening celebration. Forty-seven technicians work in the 1,700 square-meter workshop which is equipped with the most modern equipment and technology and where up to 200 gearbox repair orders are expected to be performed annually starting in 2012.
ZF Services also acts as a multi-brand repair and service company: It performs repair and maintenance work on many different types of gearboxes in almost any performance range and from many different manufacturers. Gearboxes are running under simulated load on the 4-megawatt wind turbine gearbox test rig developed and constructed by ZF Test Systems. It measures the structure-born noise as well as the contact pattern under load. Since 2007, ZF Services has been repairing gearboxes up to 2.5 megawatts, rotor shafts in the same performance class and YAW/Azimut gearboxes.
To minimize downtimes for wind farm operators, ZF Services also provides replacement gearboxes. Also, a large variety of popular spare parts, such as toothed parts and anti-friction bearing sets, are always available.
The Dortmund-based Center of Competence will also be responsible for coordinating the global deployment of wind energy specialists who will perform error analyses per video endoscopy at onshore and offshore plants, repairs directly on site or install replacement gearboxes. Marcel Pooth, Manager of the Wind Energy Service in Dortmund: “Our technicians are constantly sharing information with colleagues from other company divisions and international wind energy service colleagues. Thanks to this global knowledge transfer, we can continually optimize our processes which will essentially be to the benefit of our customers.”
During the grand opening on June 28, 2011, keynote speaker Udo Paschedag, State Secretary in the Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Agriculture, Nature and Consumer Protection for the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW): “Unfortunately, the expansion of renewable energies, and especially wind energy, has been neglected by politicians and government in the last five years. We in North Rhine-Westphalia now want to rectify this and make wind energy a supporting pillar among renewable energies.” The fact that North Rhine-Westphalia has the highest concentration of gearbox manufacturers for wind farms worldwide makes Dortmund the perfect location for the Center of Competence as a hub for international activities.
Experts predict that the share of wind energy in the power market will rise considerably above ten percent by 2020. The investments that ZF Services has made in infrastructure and locations show that ZF wants to be a part of this development. In fact, ZF Services will begin producing its own gearboxes for wind turbines starting in 2012.
Picture (from left to right): Steffen Reichelt (Director Non-Automotive ZF Services), Jenz Rother (Mayor of Holzwickede), Udo Paschedag (State Secretary in the Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Agriculture, Nature and Consumer Protection), Martin Müller (Member of the Board of Directors ZF Services), and Marcel Pooth (Manager Wind Energy Service Dortmund) officially inaugurate, in front of the new 4-megawatt load test rig, the Center of Competence for Wind Energy Service in Holzwickede/Dortmund.
Press contact:
Fabiola Wagner, ZF Services
Head of Corporate Communications
Tel. +49 9721 4756-110, Fax: 4755-658
E-Mail: fabiola.wagner@zf.com
Chris Edelmann, ZF Services
Corporate Communications
Tel. +49 9721 4756-172, Fax: 4755-658
E-mail: chris.edelmann@zf.com
ZF is a leading worldwide automotive supplier for Driveline and Chassis Technology with 117 production companies in 26 countries. With its workforce of approximately 70,000 employees, ZF achieved sales of 12.9 billion euros in 2010. In order to continue to be successful with innovative products, ZF annually invests about five percent of its sales (2010: 646 million EUR) in Research and Development.
ZF Services combines Sachs, Lemförder, Boge and ZF Parts product brands as well as the global offering of the ZF group in retail, services and customer service. The business unit is currently represented by approx. 2600 employees and aims to strengthen international customer service and to expand the after sales business with new products and services.
You can find full information on the ZF Services business unit under
http://www.zf.com/services
