The design of my giant wind turbine project which I began fabricating subassembly components for a couple of years ago has been significantly redesigned. The original was to be a HAWT (Horizontal Axis ind Turbine) on a 70 foot tall 8 legged steel tower with a 36 foot dual blade propeller. I came to realize the folly of this when it sank in that I am no longer capable of climbing such a tower due to failing physical abilities. It was going to be wayy to much work for me to complete and the risk of an overspeed explosion to total destruction was very real IF it ever got finished.
My new design was inspired by the episode on TV showing a neat little VAWT recently purchased by Jay Leno for his workshop. The beauty for me of a VAWT (Vertical Axis Wnd Turbine) is that no tower climbing is required for most maintenance, the heavy generator head, gearbox and other machinery is all at ground level! Fortunately it appears that most of the pieces I spent so much time making can still be used in the new design.
In order to utilize the low loss planetary gearbox I have which must retain horizontal shaft orientation for proper luibrication, I find I shall need a way of changing the slow speed propeller shaft from vertical as it comes down as the main driveshaft, to horizontal so it can couple to the input of the step-up gearbox. I need a fairly heavy duty 90 degree 1:1 or very low ratio gearbox that can handle about 20 kW safely at a couple of hundred RPM.
I cannot think of any place where I have seen such an angle drive in use commercially, like perhaps in a piece of farm machinery (of which my level of knowledge is extremely limited).
I am putting this out there in the hopes I might receive some ideas. I am aware that I could employe a 3:1 or so rear truck differential axle to give me the 90 degree change and then get back to 1:1 ratio with a chain and two sprockets, but that is needlessly sloppy and lossy. Ideas?