Kinematics, a manufacturer of solar tracker drive systems, has shipped the first round of its newest product, the ST Series. Representing years of research, development and engineering, the ST Series features a maintenance-free, grease-free dry bearing design that delivers 20 to 50% more holding torque than Kinematics’ HE Series. In other words, it is a smaller drive that can be used in similar applications to previous models.
A close-up of a Kinematics ST-series slew drive deployed on a single-axis solar tracker.
“Created with a deep understanding of solar tracker customer needs, the Kinematics ST Series Actuator is redefining performance and reliability in the renewable energy sector while delivering the lowest cost of ownership for the entire solar installation ecosystem , from installation and commissioning to long-term operations and maintenance,” says Jenn Cangelosi, VP Sales business development at Kinematics.
The ST series can be integrated with smart technologies for control and real-time monitoring of the drives.
“We believe the ST Series will become the de facto standard for single-axis tracker operation and will be the benchmark for reliability and performance for solar tracker manufacturers, solar EPCs, solar project owners, financiers and O&M providers ” says Adam Plesniak, CTO of Kinematica. “The main challenge was to prove a performance improvement over our HE Series drive, which is already a robust, high-volume production drive. The HE series requires more maintenance and has less capacity per drive size than the ST. These challenges have been overcome through hours of dedicated development, rigorous testing and detailed analysis.”
The ST series actuators have undergone dynamic capacity tests, static capacity tests, efficiency maximization tests, temperature and humidity tests, water ingress resistance tests, dust ingress resistance tests, corrosion resistance tests, UV resistance tests and seal integrity tests.
News item from Kinematics