VRS

Variable Ratio Speed

Variable Ratio Speed (VRS) by Orbital2 offers advantages accross industrial applications which can benefit from continuously variable input to output gear ratio. VRS was originally developed for wind turbine application where it was used with online synchronous generator as an alternative to variable frequency drives. VRS gearboxes are ideal drive for wind, tidal, hydro applications in the renewable power sector as well as other applications such as pump, compressor and fan drives.

Control of the gearbox ratio is via a highly responsive low inertia hydraulic governor system which maintains synchronous generation whilst controlling the dynamic load in the drive train. In the case that a gust of wind cause an increase transmitted torque, then the transmission ratio is automatically reduced and this enables the rotor of the power plant to rotate faster maintaining a constant torque on the generator. Thus the sudden fluctuations of the wind energy are absorbed by rotor acceleration to a higher speed and simultaneously the whole driving system is protected against overload fluctuations.