Air X Marine Wind Generator
Long Term Test (started March 2004)
Packing and supply Air X Marine (device 1 and device 2)
The Air X Marine is very solidly packed supplied. Weight inclusive container about 8 kg. All sections lie in a bed from soft synthetic (see photo) and in the case of transport in such a way practically can not to be damaged. From this a delivery at each spot of the world is not a problem.
Mounting and operating instructions
Mounting and operating instructions (43 sides with several appendices) are in detail and well understandable. You hardly can make this better.
Air X Marine main body
The main body is from aluminum, makes a solid impression and is well painted. The main body
rotates in the angle of 360 degrees freely on the main body foot. So it should be:
Air X 69407 rotates perfectly at 360 degrees.
Air X 69412 rotates also at 360 degrees, but not perfectly. Between 0 degrees and 180 degrees it rotates perfectly, between 180 degrees and 360 degrees it clamps a little bit. That leads with wind under 15 knots to the fact that Air X during a sudden strong change of air may swing strongly from its former direction, thereby may be blocked and afterwards does not swing back no longer. The reason is a too heavy film of varnish at the main body foot above the name plate. That is not a serious defect, because the film of varnish will grind off itself there, but the defect would not be necessary during a quantity production.
On the rotor sub-base are fixed the 3 rotor blades. The rotor sub-base is today substantially
better constructed than with the older Air Marine versions 303 and 403. The final Air Marine
403 had already these rotor sub-base:
In former times the rotor sub-base was a simple aluminum plate with 6 boreholes for the blade
(see photo). Now the rotor
sub-base is a cast shaped part with sturdy bars against distortions (see
photo).
The rotor sub-base has 3 locating places for 3 blades, which are limited with bars.
The idea is good: The locating places for the 3 blade on the rotor sub-base are to fit grooveless with the fixing parts the 3 blades, in order to connect the blades actuated with the rotor sub-base. The screws would have here only an additional support function.
Unfortunately that is badly made for moulds, in which the rotor sub-base is cast. The recesses for the fixing parts the blade are much too large.
Thus the fixing parts of the blade do not fit grooveless in these locating places, but move when assembling between the bars as long as the 2 screws are not solidly tightened, which connect the rotor sub-base with the blades. Actually a good idea to connect, but as in former times the Air Marine blades are fixed only by the 2 screws. Thus here no improvement opposite the Air Marine 403.
Optimized blades are very smooth. Each blade should be completely identical to every other blade. The rotor blades on the Air X does not work by any means well. They are still much to uneven for a structural part, which can achieve a speed of 300 km/h = 160 mph and which are responsible for how loud or quietly and how effectively the blade runs.
All supplied blade show the same uneven areas and have noticeable seams at their fixing parts, onto which they are screwed. Here with production between the upper mould of the blade and the lower mould of the blade the material ran out. That is not very bad, but it does not speak for accurate fit between the upper and the lower mould of the blade. Technically an accurate fit is today no problem. If however already technical problems occur with the fit of the two moulds for the blade, we do not believe that roughness in parts the blade has system and is intended.
If the mounting elements of the blade are screwed on the rotor baseplate, those blades might show slightly different angles to the rotor baseplate. That should be tested after the Air X assembly is installed, in order to avoid vibrations and unnecessary noises caused by different blade angles. All you have to do for that is to check (with unit switched off) by measuring the distance between the blade tip points and the pipe, on which the Air X is mounted. If the distances to the 3 blades are not the same, those blades must be dismantled and examined. Probably small remainders of the wing material, or even remainders of the packing stick at the blade mounting element, which causes this unevenness. After removing this, the blade will have the correct angle.
When and why is Air X quiet, when and why not ?
With blades diagonally to the longitudinal axis of the ship (like usually under sails) the Air X is nearly no more to be heard up to wind force of 20 knots. With wind between 20 and 30 knots becomes even so extremely quiet that one hears only the completely easy humming, which does not disturb. One must even listen very exactly to hear the Air X when the blades are running diagonally to the long axle of the ship.
With wind transverse to the long axle of the ship (like usually at anchor) one hears the Air X with standard blades clearly up to very clearly (there exists meanwhile a very quiet Air wing from a different manufacturer): Starting from 10 knots wind one hears it hiss, with increasing wind force louder. Starting from 20 knots wind it is loud. Why?
The blades of the Air X are very thin, narrow and sharp. They were probably developed for high RPM and winds from 15 knots and more in the wind tunnel, but not for small noise. In the wind tunnel the wind is exactly defined and always coming from the same direction practically without turbulence. By the sharp profile and the unstably vibrating blades the current at the blades will tear, particularly easily with turbulences. As soon as the Air flow at the blades tears off, one hears the Air blades hissing.
On board the situation is completely different from the wind tunnel: There the Air X is usually in the back installed. At anchor the Air X gets only the wind, which was completely whirled into disorder before by mast, rig and superstructures of the ship. There air flows very turbulent on the blades, where the current can hardly stay on the blades, except may be with very much wind.
Only under sails, if the wind breaks in diagonally from the side and is no more disturbed
by mast, rig and superstructures of the ship, the Air X receives nearly parallel air flow and
is clearly quieter thereby than at anchor.
If one disturbs this nearly parallel air flow artificially, by putting oneself totally or partly
in front of the Air X into the air flow, the Air X becomes clearly louder.
Therefore one should install the Air X as highly as possible (however still attainable for service), because the higher the mounting area the stronger the wind will be and the uninterrupted and parallel the air flow will be.
positive / negative experiences up to
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date |
positive |
negative |
comment maufacturer |
our comment |
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Both Air X came directly from the production line. They were not "test prepared". |
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Compared to ALL earlier Air Marine clearly more quietly |
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The disturbances are not identical on all Air X: While Air X 69412 strongly disturbs within the range 8,000 MHz to 11,000
MHz USB, Air X 69407 does not disturb those frequences at all. |
Some Air X seem to be (like most of the earlier Air Marine, too) not (sufficiently) radio-screened: Clear disturbances with weak AM transmitters within the range 6,000 MHz to 18,000 MHz (80, 40, 30, 20, 17 meter band) and 8,000 MHz to 11,000 MHz (40, 30, 20, 17 meter band) SSB and USB. |
We are working hard on this point. We went through extensive tests by an independent lab in the Netherlands who certified the machine. However, for some reason some frequency was missed. And to make things worse, this is the frequency that many side band radios use. Because of so many projects we have on our task list for new product development, our engineers have not spent that much time resolving the problem. They are expected to resolve the problem within the next several months. |
The season was terminated at the end of April 2004. We will start new tests from the beginning of next season with other ships and radio communication systems. Strong AM transmitters (BBC, German wave etc.) are not disturbed. |
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