UltraTall™ Towers
Using a new invention called LITS-Form™,
the UltraTall™ towers are fabricated
at the wind generation site.
Conventional Towers are manufactured at
a large, expensive facility. Then the
towers must be transported using specialized
vehicles to the wind site. The tower sections
are oversize which requires expensive permits.
Tower Designs
The design specifications of wind energy towers require
that the diameter of the tower must increase as the
tower height increases.
At a height of about 100 meters, the diameter
of a wind energy tower is as large as it can be
and still be transported.
Overhead power lines, bridges, and other overhead
obstructions prevent larger towers from being
moved by rail or by truck.
Conventional towers that are manufactured
at a central facility and transported by rail or truck
cannot be taller than 100 meters.
Heavy Steel Plate Bending
Wind towers are made of thick steel plates,
some more than one inch thick. This steel has
strength levels of as much as 60 thousand
pounds per square inch. So, a one inch thick
plate that is 40 feet long can require a
machine that can apply as much as 30 million
pounds of force to bend.
These machines require large reinforced
concrete foundations and can take several
weeks to assemble and install.
LITS-Form Heavy Steel Plate Bending
The LITS-Form process is a new invention that uses rapid differential
thermal expansion and contraction to bend heavy steel plates.
A LITS-Form machine with a 3 million watt heat source can easily bend
two inch thick steel plates quickly and with very high precision.
The LITS-Form machine is completely portable and is fast and easy to
set-up at the wind generation site. The machine fits on a small,
light weight, flat-bed truck. Heavy steel plates as thick as two
inches are precision formed and then welded together to make the wind
tower.
Using the same power lines that will later be used to transmit
electricity from the wind generation site to the grid, the LITS-Form
machine is connected to the power source. Then the machine begins to
precision bend 10 foot by 40 foot steel plates, up to two inches thick,
every few minutes. It can produce as many as 50 UltraTall towers in
less than a month.
UltraTall Tower is Self-Erecting
Field cranes taller than 100 meters have limited availability
and are costly to transport and to lease or buy No field cranes
are even available at the height of the largest UltraTall Towers.
The UltraTall Tower design is self erecting which eliminates the
need for a very large field crane.
By eliminating the transportation cost of towers and nearly eliminating
the crane cost of the tower, EnergYnTech is able to install UltraTall
towers at a very reasonable price to the wind generator operator and
help to reduce the cost of wind energy to the consumer.
