1. Technical Field
The subject matter described here generally relates to miscellaneous hardware such as closure checks, and, more particularly, to stops for wind turbine hatches.
2. Related Art
A wind turbine is a machine for converting the kinetic energy in wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used directly by the machinery, such as to pump water or to grind wheat, then the wind turbine may be referred to as a windmill. Similarly, if the mechanical energy is converted to electricity, then the machine may also be referred to as a wind generator or wind power plant.
Wind turbines are typically categorized according to the vertical or horizontal axis about which the blades rotate. One so-called horizontal-axis wind generator is schematically illustrated in FIG. 1 and available from General Electric Company. This particular configuration for a wind turbine 2 includes a tower 4 supporting a nacelle 6 enclosing a drive train 8. The blades 10 are arranged on a hub to form a “rotor” at one end of the drive train 8 outside of the nacelle 6. The rotating blades 10 drive a gearbox 12 connected to an electrical generator 14 at the other end of the drive train 8 arranged inside the nacelle 6 along with a control system 16 that receives input from an anemometer 18.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, various enclosures of the wind turbine 2, such as the nacelle enclosure 6, the hub cone enclosure 7 and/or other enclosures, are typically provided with a hatchway 20 for allowing access to the interior of the wind turbine 2. The hatchway 20 is typically covered by a door or hatch 22 that is connected to the enclosure by one or more hinges 24 on one side and a latch 26 on the other side. During normal maintenance and troubleshooting, the opened hatch 22 rests unsecured upon the external surface of the enclosure of wind turbine 2. However, in the high wind environments associated with wind turbines, such unsecured open hatches 22 can be blown closed at a high velocity, striking any personnel and/or equipment that may be present in the hatchway 20. Hatches 22 are therefore sometimes secured with a screwed C-clamp that compress the internal surface of the open hatch 22 toward the external surface of the enclosure.