In the fast growing market for wind power systems, quality assurance according to international industrial standards has become an important issue. Wind power plants are no longer a niche playground for environmental proponents, but a serious business where cost efficiency, life cycle costs, reliability and availability of the components must be considered. Coordinate measuring machines play a vital role in ensuring the accuracy and quality of components.

Gear Boxes are a major part of all wind turbines. The quality requirements are high: as the wind blows in gusts, a backlash-free operation is indispensable to ensure a long and beneficial lifespan of the system. Mechanical efficiency is directly related to economic efficiency. Noise reduction in the gear box is important to ensure the public acceptance of wind turbines and the industry has to follow these requirements. Not many manufacturers are able to produce such large gear boxes (and with the off-shore systems, the sizes are even larger), and now they have to deal with serial production, having many unknown requirements for quality in very large dimensions.

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