Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Airborne wind turbine tether termination systems
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Application No.: US15714128Application Date: 2017-09-25
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Publication No.: US10533537B2Publication Date: 2020-01-14
- Inventor: Bryan Christopher GilroySmith , Brian Hachtmann , Elias Wolfgang Patten
- Applicant: Makani Technologies LLC
- Applicant Address: US CA Alameda
- Assignee: Makani Technologies LLC
- Current Assignee: Makani Technologies LLC
- Current Assignee Address: US CA Alameda
- Agency: McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP
- Main IPC: F03D13/20
- IPC: F03D13/20 ; F03D1/02 ; F03D80/70 ; F03D9/25

Abstract:
An Airborne Wind Turbine (“AWT”) may be used to facilitate conversion of kinetic energy to electrical energy. An AWT may include an aerial vehicle that flies in a path to convert kinetic wind energy to electrical energy. The aerial vehicle may be tethered to a ground station with a tether that terminates at a tether termination mount. In one aspect, the tether has a core and at least one electrical conductor. The tether core may be terminated at a first location in a tether termination mount along an axis of the termination mount, and the at least one electrical conductor may be terminated at a second location in the tether termination mount along the same axis that the core is terminated. This termination configuration may focus tensile stress on the tether to the tether core, and minimize such stress on the at least one electrical conductor during aerial vehicle flight.
Public/Granted literature
- US20180030960A1 Airborne Wind Turbine Tether Termination Systems Public/Granted day:2018-02-01
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