A New Highly Wear-resistant Nanostructured Bainitic Steel for Wind Turbine Gearbox Applications

Invention Reference Number

202405685

Heap of untreated raw steel at the factory. Image from Envato

A new highly wear-resistant nanostructured bainitic steel with faster kinetics for bainite formation was designed specifically for wind turbine gearbox applications. This steel offers superior wear properties in dry sliding compared to the current state of the art AISI 52100 steel which is used in wind turbine gearbox components. The superior wear resistance highlights the potential of the newly developed steel as a candidate for other clean energy technologies that have high wear service such as trackers in solar energy, as well as gears in electric vehicles.

Description

This nanostructured bainitic steel was developed using an accelerated alloy discovery approach using a combination of CALPHAD (Calculation of Phase Diagrams), machine learning, and data mining techniques. It features accelerated bainite formation kinetics at 200°C, allowing it to transform 7 times faster than conventional bainitic steels and complete transformation twice as fast. The dual-phase structure of ferrite and austenite with a size of approximately 50 nm, provides exceptional wear resistance, outperforming industry-standard materials like AISI 52100/100Cr6 steel, making it an ideal candidate for high wear service applications such as wind turbine gearboxes, solar trackers, and electric vehicle gears.

Benefits

Accelerated alloy design: A coupled CALPHAD, Machine learning, and data mining approach allows to screen 1,000,000 composition sets in a few hours using a commercial consumer-use computer without custom hardware upgrades. The proposed approach, therefore, can be used in industrial and academic settings to guide the design of new alloy compositions with improved properties.
Superior wear resistance: Offers better wear properties than the industry standard AISI 52100 steel.
Simplified processing: Only requires a single heat treatment step to achieve the desired microstructure, compared to 4-5 steps for current materials.
Cost-effective: Minimizes material processing time and costs, while improving longevity in high-wear applications

Applications and Industries

Wind turbine gearboxes: Enhances durability and wear resistance to reduce maintenance and downtime.
Solar energy trackers: Ensures long-term functionality and reliability in gear mechanisms for solar tracking systems.
Electric vehicles (EVs): Suitable for wear-resistant gears in EV drivetrains, enhancing performance and extending vehicle lifespan.