Drives and Gears of the A.S.N.T. System
A key issue with commonly used Dual-Axis Solar Trackers (DTS) lies in their drives and gear systems. They may look impressive, but unfortunately they’re not effective. The East–West drive, based on a slewing bearing, must be mounted at the top of the mast and built to be extremely sturdy. The real problems come from using the cheapest possible components. The same applies to the linear actuator used for North–South movement. Strong wind gusts exert massive pressure, which means the actuator must be robust — and therefore expensive — yet malfunctions still occur. A DTS should not be a display piece but a reliable working machine.
That’s why we’ve turned to time-tested, robust mechanical solutions, adapted and configured for our needs. First, we moved the drives outside of the tracker, completely eliminating their influence on potential failures. The motors are powered by inverters, operate only 3–4 minutes per day, and drive gear reducers with a rotation speed of up to 7 RPM. The East–West drive has been relocated to the bottom. The mast is mounted on a sliding sleeve working in tandem with a tapered roller bearing. The self-locking drive uses a worm gear mechanism. The mast completes fewer than two full rotations per day, which virtually eliminates breakdowns.
The North–South drive is based on a tensioned steel cable on one side of the frame and a spring-loaded counterbalance on the other, supported by hydraulic shock absorbers. This system allows the frame to flex slightly under sudden wind gusts, which minimizes resistance and prevents structural stress or overload, ensuring stable tracker operation even in extreme weather conditions.
This is the foundation of A.S.N.T. – the Active Solar Tracker Drive System. Such mechanical solutions have been used for over 200 years. However, it’s our unique configuration that enables DTS units to be connected in series, in any number, using just one drive per axis and a single shared control system. This is the only solution of its kind in the world — a fact recognized by the Polish Patent Office, which has deemed it novel and inventive and granted it copyright protection.
Over three years of rigorous testing, both in real-world extreme conditions and simulations, have proven the reliability of our drive systems. They have accumulated approximately 20 years of combined operating time — including more than three years of active energy generation — without a single failure.
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