Germany’s ZF has signed a contract with Vestas (VWS.CO) to supply wind turbine gear boxes. Production is scheduled to begin in early 2012 at a new U.S. facility under construction in Gainesville, Ga.
ZF’s goal is to eventually producing 2,000 gear boxes per year at the facility. The company is investing about $90 million to build the new Gainesville facility,
which will employ about 200 workers.
In addition, ZF will add manufacturing test stands for the wind gear box industry in addition to its end-of-line and development test benches.
ZF has been providing service for the wind power industry since 2007, and is currently investing in service centers for wind turbines in Dortmund, Germany and in the United States.
ZF is primarily an automotive industry supplier
specializing in driveline and chassis technologies. With a workforce of
60,000 employees, the company operates 123 plants in 27 countries. ZF
Group revenues in 2009 totaled euro 9.4 billion.
"We will leverage our expertise and leadership in designing and building world-class drivelines for the transportation sector to enter the growing and exciting field of alternative energy. This will diversify our core business and expand our product portfolio," said ZF Group CEO Hans-Georg Harter.
ZF aims to achieve annual gear box sales of more than $200 million.
Last year at its Dortmund/Holzwickede site in Germany, ZF invested EUR 9 million establishing a service competence center for wind power. By 2012, various brands and models of wind turbine gear boxes will be serviced and overhauled there. By 2014, ZF Services aims for its worldwide wind energy sales to rise to EUR 50 million.
Also, ZF is constructing a loading test rig with a four-megawatt performance capacity. Serviced gear boxes will be driven under simulated load conditions to measure both structural and airborne noise levels. ZF Services says it is the industry’s only independent, multi-brand services provider with such a test rig.
ZF is establishing additional wind power service centers in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and North America. It also plans to enter the steadily growing wind power markets of China and India.
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