Safety first: Like everything else in aviation, the antenna bearings for high-powered jets must meet the most stringent quality requirements.
Through its innovative ideas and customised solutions – often as part of project partnerships or research initiatives – Franke regularly enters new business areas that seek solutions to the challenges of our time and promise good development potential for the future.
Solar thermal power plants are a method of generating renewable energy that is largely unknown in Central Europe. A large number of mirrors are grouped around a tower that has a large tank for fluids at the top. The mirrors are continuously automatically rotated so that they reflect the sunlight onto the tank, turning the liquid into steam and thereby facilitating the operation of an electricity generator. Indispensable to this process are the rotating connections on the mirrors, which guarantee high rigidity and precision even in extreme climatic conditions and high winds. So it’s no wonder that in 2011, BrightSource Energy opted for Franke’s wire race bearings for the 180,000 mirrors spread across three solar fields in Ivanpah, California. By the end of 2012, Franke was supplying them with 8,000 roller bearings of type LER-4 every month, which were mass-produced to a customised design. Again for a solar thermal plant, Franke also supplied 50,000 LER-4 bearing elements to BrightSource Energy for a project they were managing in Ashalim, Israel, which opened in 2015 and is capable of generating 120 megawatts of electricity in its highest construction stage.
Franke also plays an important role in the evolution of electric transport. The double-row angular contact ball bearing that was installed straight into the housing parts of the hubless aluminium-carbon rim of an electrically powered “Formula Student” racing car in 2012 or the bearings with non-magnetic balls of a wheel hub with an integrated torque motor for a concept car or even the rolling bearings with direct drive for innovative e-scooters and e-bikes – at the moment they are still more the spearhead of ambitious development projects. However, Franke’s LER-3 wire race bearings, which are increasingly being used by electric motor manufacturers in stator winding motors, have long been making a steady contribution to electric transport.
Another growth area is defence technology, which already played a little publicised role in the 1960s. In view of the rapidly changing international threat level since the Russian attack on Ukraine, the subject of defence is becoming an increasingly important one – including for Franke. There is now high demand for rolling bearings that meet extreme quality and functionality requirements, for example for mobile or ship-based satellite systems, antenna systems and laser optics systems for aircraft, also with direct drive, for rotating mounts of emergency vehicles and tracked vehicles or for submarine periscopes. //