TVL (Toeleveringsbedrijf van Landuyt) in Wetteren, Belgium, has been finishing transmission housings for wind turbines for the past several years. When the company began, production numbered about 2,000 housings, which doubled by 2008, and its annual capacity continues to grow with each passing year.

The company produces transmission housings with high-precision machined bores having diameters of up to 1,640 mm (64.5 in.). The tolerance for a 650 mm (25.6 in.) bore is only ±25 µm (±0.001 in.), and this must be measured and verified on every housing. All in all, the bores are drilled at 0.08 percent of nominal diameter size.

“We could not measure the big transmission housings in-house,” says managing director Geert Van Landuyt. “So we were working together with a service provider with the necessary equipment in Germany.” As production quantities grew, transportation to the service provider became a costly proposition. “Ultimately, we decided we needed our own coordinate measuring machine,” says Van Landuyt.

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