Hub of a wind turbine

A hub of a wind turbine having rotor blades adjustable about their longitudinal axes and mounted to the hub by means of blade bearings, wherein the hub comprises:

• a hub body comprising a jacket, the jacket defining an interior space and having a plurality of openings extending completely through the jacket and communicating with the interior space;
• an outer ring formed integral with the jacket and extending about the perimeter of one of the plurality of openings extending through the jacket, the outer ring comprising an outer surface facing away from the jacket, an inner surface facing the interior space, and an annular opening defined by an annular surface;
• an inner ring sized to be rotatably received in the annular opening of the outer ring;
• an inner sealing plate mounted to the inner surface so as to seal the inner ring from the interior space;
• an outer sealing plate facing away from the jacket;
• wherein the inner ring comprises a circumferentially-extending sidewall extending between the inner sealing plate and the outer sealing plate, the circumferentially-extending sidewall having an inner surface and an outer surface;
• a gearbox comprising a central sun gear and a plurality of planetary gears disposed about the central sun gear;
• wherein the outer ring extends radially outboard of the jacket such that the inner surface of the outer ring defines a concave curved region facing the interior space, and such that the outer surface of the outer ring defines a convex curved region facing away from the jacket;
• wherein an inner rim is formed in the annular surface of the outer ring such that the inner rim extends about the annular opening of the outer ring, and at least one outer raceway is formed in the annular surface of the outer ring such that the at least one outer raceway extends around the annular opening of the outer ring, the at least one outer raceway being disposed concentric with the inner rim and axially outboard of the inner rim;
• wherein at least one inner raceway is formed in the outer surface of the circumferentially-extending sidewall of the inner ring, such that when the inner ring is mounted in the annular opening defined by the outer ring, the at least one inner raceway is aligned with the at least one outer raceway formed in the annular surface of the outer ring;
• wherein the inner sealing plate of the inner ring and the outer sealing plate of the inner ring are configured to be screwed together via fasteners disposed in a plurality of coronally arranged fastening bores extending parallel to a longitudinal axis of the rotor blade, so that none of the rotor blades engages in any one of the plurality of openings in the hub body;
• wherein the inner surface of the circumferentially-extending sidewall of the inner ring comprises a first toothed region extending circumferentially about the inner surface of the circumferentially-extending side wall of the inner ring;
• wherein the inner rim of the annular surface of the outer ring comprises a second toothed region extending circumferentially about the inner rim;
• wherein the plurality of planetary gears of the gearbox engage the first toothed region of the inner ring and the second toothed region of the inner rim, such that when the sun gear is rotated, the plurality of planetary gears rotate about the sun gear and simultaneously engage the first toothed region and the second toothed region;
• wherein the number of teeth H1 of the first toothed region differ from the number of teeth H2 of the second toothed region by a tooth differential ΔZ, and further wherein ΔZ is equal to the number of planetary gears in the gearbox, such that single-piece planetary gears are arranged around the sun gear at equidistant intervals, thereby resulting in a high speed ratio and high torque reduction in the force required to rotate the sun gear.