When it comes to designing and manufacturing alternators, perhaps no other company can match the dedication of Mecc Alte. Headquartered in Creazzo near Vicenza in northern Italy, it has been focused on manufacturing alternators for over seven decades, today producing them and supporting customers from a global network of its own production, sales and service sites. Some of its models are specially designed for wind turbines.
One of its latest alternators, the ECO40-C series, introduced a new permanent magnet generator system among numerous design improvements. The company’s most recent development, the new V-Type alternator announced June 28, is its most resilient ever. It features advanced winding treatment for generator OEM’s whose products must overcome harsh environments and rugged operating conditions.
Mecc Alte works hard with its clients to continually develop a high-level of insight into what challenges the power generator market faces with their generator sets including where and how they are operated. Its latest heavy-duty alternator range, The V-Type, meets a demand for a product that offers increased resilience for use in gensets where environment or operation could be detrimental to performance. Its winding treatment utilizes reinforced tape around the stator lower radius and additional internal protection incorporating VPI impregnation with the exciter stator also taped and having VTP treatment.
The C-Type Series represents a completely new approach to design, both inside and out, that brings various advances and benefits to customers and end users, says the company. “We have invested in research, working with the power generation community, to understand the challenges that are faced in achieving and maintaining continuous, efficient and reliable power delivery.” Among the main innovations, the new permanent magnet generator (PMG) system is retrofittable at any time on option. Called PMG2C, assembly time has been vastly reduced compared to the previous PMG3 model.
Mecc Alte’s permanent magnet generator has an EMC filter built into a single-phase inverter system. Harmonic distortion is very low (<2%) and creates an excellent waveform, ensuring the safe operation of sensitive modern electronic equipment. Power density is increased using reverse technology, where traditional winding systems and the central stator are replaced by an external rotor, maximizing the potential of the magnets used.
Today, the company is a global supplier of a wide and diversified range of alternators with over 1,200 employees, producing over 1,400 alternators a day across the globe. Manufacturing takes place in Italy, the UK, India and China with a total production of over 450,000 units a year. Its production process is totally integrated ensuring that every production phase, from the design and selection of materials through to manufacture and after-sales assistance, complies with the strictest international and organizational standards. Over the decades, innovation and addressing the needs of its OEM clientele have been core to growth as the company strives to be at the forefront of technological advancement and market solutions.
Among its growing market areas are specially designed alternators for wind turbines. Small wind turbines are one of the most adaptable, flexible and easy to use technologies for generating sustainable and cheap electricity. For this reason, market demand is exploding right now, says the company, but traditionally there has been a lack of industrialized components with a specific designed performance. New turbine producers usually have to design all the parts, increasing the costs and inflating the time to market. MeccAlte decided to fill the gap by designing a new series of low rpm alternators for wind turbines.
The result are the Eogen series, ranging from 400W to 5kW, and following, the Njorgen series, ranging from 5kW to 20kW. By means of the oversized double bearing design, Eogen and Njorgen provide solutions both for vertical and horizontal wind turbines as they can be used as a rotating hub for the blades, providing also an important advantage for integrators.
Eogen features 16 poles, a 20-year life design with NeFeB magnets and low-friction SKF bearings. Nominal speed is about 400rpm, maximum speed up to 4200 rpm. Njorgen features 34 poles, also a 20-year life design with NeFeB magnets and low-friction SKF bearings. Nominal speed is about 150 rpm and maximum speed to 4200 rpm. For more info, see www.meccalte.com.
