Svendborg Brakes, the leading global manufacturer of premium quality caliper brakes has released its yaw brake lifting and installation tool, which aims to improve safety and reduce the time taken to maintain the yaw brake systems on wind turbines. This latest innovation uses a simple carriage assembly to position, raise and lower brakes to ensure that maintenance engineers minimize any heavy lifting and complete their tasks more efficiently.

The LBS 120 yaw brake lifting and installation tool has been designed to work on brake assemblies with a maximum width of 502 mm and with a brake disc thickness of 40 mm. The tool incorporates a winch mechanism that is used to raise and lower the brake to floor level, with a maximum lifting height of 2,000 mm. Created to improve safety and productivity of the engineers, the tool is easy to transport and assemble on site.

Once the lifting tool has been installed, the original brake can be released, allowing it to rest on a sliding carriage which is used to position the brake below the winch mechanism that is used to lower it to the floor. The process is reversed to install the new brake, after which the tool can be repositioned to work on the next brake.

The new service tool significantly reduces the time required to maintain yaw brakes which reduces the downtime of the turbine and minimizes running costs.

Svendborg Brakes is the market leader for the supply of yaw brakes to the global wind industry, delivering state-of-the-art yaw systems for all modern medium and large wind turbines. For more information and to see a video of how the tool works, visit svendborg-brakes.com.