Eoltec Scirocco replacement parts UK

[Matt Green]

Dear All,

I am currently working on a Scirocco 6kW turbine which requires replacement slew bearigns and a replacement yaw bearing.

I have found the contact details of 'The Pure Energy Centre', which according to their website have spares for the Scirocco, but as yet I have had no luck getting in touch with them.

Rob - do you still maintain a stock of these parts in the US?

If anyone has any leads parts I would appreciate it. If all else fails I will strip the machine down and remanufacture the parts, or re-engineer to take a commonly available bearing.

Best regards,
Matt

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Matt,

Unfortunately I've sold all the slewing rings we had left. Many of them went to the UK in fact. All I have left is an alternator spring (the aluminum 'wheel' inside the alternator that tends to break when it runs single-phase), and an alternator stator. Everything else has sold.

There was talk at some point that the last UK distributor for the Scirocco was going to have parts manufactured. I don't know what became of that, it may be worth checking out.

-RoB-

[Matt Green]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the reply. I think that 'The Pure Energy Centre' in Shetland are the only Scirocco associated company that still claim to provide any spares. When, or if, I eventually get hold of them I will confirm this. In the mean time if any board readers know of other distributors or engineers involved in keeping Sciroccos spinning please let me know.

Regards,
Matt

[Matt Green]

Update - got 2 of the required bearings from the Pure Energy Centre who were very helpful but only had 2 that they were willing to part with.

The third bearing is still a problem. They are slewing/turntable bearings with 4 point contact races but annoyingly between two commonly available sizes. I guess Eoltec had them custom made and possibly scrimped a bit on quality - the ones I removed were pretty bad and in some places looked like they had been finished with an angle grinder...thankfully the new ones look a bit better. Original manufacturer seems to be 'RTR', which google tells me is a Chinese company although I have so far had no luck getting hold of them.

I am currently looking at other options. Good quality bearings of this type are over £500, which is OK but would need some re-engineering of the tower top and nacelle to make them fit (as the originals are not a common size).

[Rob Beckers]

Matt, I can confirm that they were custom built for Eoltec.

The background story is that the first generation of slewing rings were made by an Italian company. They were of very good quality, but they were also, from what I understood, very expensive to manufacture in small batches. Eoltec then outsourced these to a Chinese company, and despite exact drawings & tolerances they were poorly made. The engineer that started Eoltec is (and was) no fool, he's very tech-savvy, and I am pretty sure the sought assurances beforehand (and probably got samples) to ensure the product would be up to spec. It was probably more about not being familiar with shady Chinese business practises than anything else. When they found out how quickly those Chinese bearings were wearing out production of them was moved to a different company. My understanding from talking to Eoltec is that that last location did make fine bearings, and the last batches of slewing rings were once again of good quality. Unfortunately that was also just about the time when Weole (at that time Eoltec's parent company) went belly up.

So, depending on what slewing rings Pure Energy still has they could be the good ones form the last batches. I had some of those, but sold out.

FYI.

-RoB-