Patent Application
20110142655
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to fan sets for wind power generators, and more particularly, to a fan set featuring for a plurality of fan blades that are retractable to be parallel to an axis of a fan hub and expandable to be perpendicular to the axis of the fan hub.
2. Description of Related Art
A known wind power generator basically includes a tower, a dynamotor mounted atop the tower, a fan hub assembled to a motor shaft of the dynamotor and a plurality of fan blades fixed to the fan hub.
One existing approach to fabrication of the conventional wind power generator is to first assemble the fan hub to the motor shaft, and then fix the dynamotor to the tower after the dynamotor is lifted to the top of the erected tower. The fan blades are lift to the altitude of the dynamotor and fixed to the fan hub one by one. The repeated lifting operation and high-altitude assembling process of the fan blades is difficult, time-consuming and dangerous to the related workers.
Another known approach to fabrication of the conventional wind power generator is to pre-assemble the fan blades and the fan hub, and then hoist the assembly of the fan blades and the fan hub to the altitude of the dynamotor for further fixing operation. Although this approach eliminates the need of repeated lifting operation for the fan blades, the fan blades extending outwards from the fan hub tend to sway in wind during the hoist, and bring additional difficulty as well as safety risk to the related workers.
One objective of the present invention is to provide a fan set for a wind power generator, wherein the fan set, as compared with the prior art, simplifies the assembling operation of the wind power generator by eliminating repeated lifting operation, reducing the difficulty, safety risk as well as time-consumption of the assembling process.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a fan set for a wind power generator, wherein the fan set is adaptive to a telescopic tower.
According to the present invention, a fan set has: a fan hub; a plurality of fixing seats fixed to the fan hub; and a plurality of fan blades each having a fastening portion assembled to one said fixing seat, wherein, each said fan blade has a concentrated position at which the fan blade is parallel to an axis of the fan hub and an expanded position at which the fan blade is perpendicular to the axis of the fan hub.
The invention as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein:
While a preferred embodiment provided hereinafter for illustrating the concept of the present invention as described above, it is to be understood that the components of the embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings are depicted for the sake of easy explanation and need not to be made in scale. Besides, counterparts through the drawings are denoted by the same numerals.
Referring to
The fixing seat 20 has a base 24. A first lateral wall 21 and a second lateral wall 22 facing each other across the fixing seat 20 while a third lateral wall 23 connects the first lateral wall 21 and the second lateral wall 22 at corresponding ends thereof. The first lateral wall 21 and the second lateral wall 22 are provided with a plurality of holes 211, 221 aligned to each other. The bases 24 of the fixing seats 20 are fixed to a front surface 11 of the fan hub 10 by means of screws. The front surface 11 of the fan hub 10 has positioning recesses 12 for receiving the base 24, so that when the bases 24 are fixed in the positioning recesses 12 by means of the screws, the fixing seats 20 can be firmly positioned relative to the fan hub 10.
Each said fan blade 30 has a fastening portion 31 shaped as a rectangular block. The fastening portion 31 includes a plurality of through holes 32 passing through its minor length. The fastening portion 31 is located between the first lateral wall 21 and the second lateral wall 22 with two sides thereof contacting the first lateral wall 21 and the second lateral wall 22, respectively. The plural through holes 32 of the fastening portion 31 and the plural holes 211, 221 of the first and second lateral walls 21, 22, when aligned, allow a plurality of bolts to pierce through and be positioned therein, so that the fastening portion 31 of the fan blade 30 can be received in the fixing seat 20.
Since the holes 211, 221 of the first lateral wall 21 and the second lateral wall 22 are extended perpendicular to the axis of the fan hub 10, and the through holes 32 of the fastening portions 31 are extended parallel to the axis of the fan blades 30, when the through holes 32 of the fan blades 30 are aligned with the holes 211, 221 and passed by a plurality of bolts 41, 42, 43 (as shown in
By removing the two bolts 41, 42 near the periphery of the fan hub 10 from the fixing seat 20, the fastening portion 31 is fixed to the fixing seat 20 by only one said bolt 43. At this time, the fan blade 30 is allowed to rotate in the fixing seat 20 against the bolt 43 between 0 and 90 degrees with respect to the axis of the fan hub 10. Particularly, when located at 0 degree with respect to the axis of the fan hub 10, the fan blades 30 are at the concentrated position parallel to the axis of the fan hub 10 with the fastening portions 31 of the fan blades 30 supported by the third lateral walls 23 of the fixing seats 20, and the fan blades 30 are retraced as shown in
Referring back to
The disclosed fan set allows the fan blades 30 to be retracted and parallel to the axis of the fan hub 10 or expanded and perpendicular to the axis of the fan hub 10. By such a novel design, a worker may pre-assemble the fan blades 30, the fan hub 10 and the dynamotor 60 (as shown in
The present invention allows the fan blades 30, fan hub 10 and dynamotor 60 to be assembled on the ground so is advantageous for easier and safer assembling process as compared with the prior art. Meantime, the assembly of the fan blades 30, fan hub 10 and dynamotor 60 can be installed at the top of the tower 61 through single hoist and installation, so the present invention, as compared to the repeated lifting operation required in the prior art, significantly reduces the time consumed by hoist. In addition, since the fan blades are retracted and temporarily fixed during hoist, the overall windage area can be reduced, thereby minimizing sway of the assembly in wind during hoist, and in turn improving safety of the installing operation.
The disclosed fan set is adaptive to a telescopic tower. It is well known that the telescopic tower helps to protect the wind power generator during installation and maintenance and in occasion of typhoons. By retracting the fan blades 30 of the fan set, the fan blades 30 can be well controlled from impacting the ground when the tower comes down and the tower is allowed to maximally lower for convenient assembly, maintenance or shelter from the undue windage.
The present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiment and it is understood that the embodiment is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Moreover, as the contents disclosed herein should be readily understood and can be implemented by a person skilled in the art, all equivalent changes or modifications which do not depart from the concept of the present invention should be encompassed by the appended claims.
