Growth in wind energy Hydra Tech

GROWTH IN WIND ENERGY

Hydra Tech, based in the Danish town of Vrå, is a world-class manufacturer of custom hydraulic cylinders. The company has a large engineering and design department and produces cylinders for the offshore and marine industries. Industry Europe looks at the company’s activities and the reasons behind its success.

Hydra Tech has been making hydraulic cylinders since the 1970s. In the beginning, the focus was on cylinders for cranes and forestry equipment. Today, Hydra Tech makes hydraulic cylinders for various applications including mining equipment, steel mills and lock gates. In 1989, Hydra Tech began to produce hydraulic cylinders for the offshore and marine industries, and these industries are now the company’s main customers. “Essentially, hydraulic cylinders help you move something that is difficult to lift,” said the company. “They also allow you to automate processes. For the offshore industry, we produce hydraulic cylinders for cranes, as well as drilling cylinders for rigs and platforms.”

On ships, Hydra Tech’s cylinders are used in hatch covers and marine cranes. In the offshore environment hydraulic cylinders must be capable of withstanding extreme conditions, so Hydra Tech treats quality and safety as top priorities. “In the offshore industry, the cost of a breakdown can be devastating. Quality of work and traceability of materials is a basic requirement.” All Hydra Tech’s production sites are certified to the international quality management standard, ISO 9001:2008. The company works with a number of regulatory certification agencies, including DNV, Bureau Veritas, ABS and Lloyds Register, to ensure the necessary safeguards are in place and that all cylinders meet the appropriate standards for durability.

Acquisitions

Hydra Tech’s main factory is at Vrå, in the north of Jutland. This factory has its own testing centre. Every product is extensively tested to make sure that the system will be reliable and live up to the customer’s expectations. Hydra Tech also has factories in China and the USA. The company set up its factory in China, at Suzhou, in 2003. It moved into the USA in 2010 when it acquired an American firm, CRC Manufacturing. “We bought our factory in Alabama in order to obtain a service point near the Gulf of Mexico. We wanted to have a local presence for trading with our American customers,” added the company representative.

At the beginning of 2011, Hydra Tech made another acquisition, taking over the Danish company, AVN Energy, whose main factory is in Silkeborg. AVN Energy is one of the leading suppliers of hydraulic systems to the global wind turbine industry. In India, AVN Energy has a factory in Bangalore, which makes components for the Indian wind power industry. There is a big market in India for wind turbines, and Indian companies are now establishing themselves in the global market.

Pitch systems

Hydra Tech has already built up extensive expertise in offshore energy, so expanding into the wind turbine industry makes sense. European countries are eager to explore the potential of renewable energy, and it aims to realise the opportunities available in this rapidly developing field. For Hyra Tech, engagement in the wind power market is a key business objective. The market has a growth rate of around 10 per cent per annum, and this level of growth is unlikely to stop.

Hydraulic cylinders play a vital role in a modern wind turbine by controlling the turbine’s pitch. A pitch system increases the efficiency of a wind turbine by positioning the blades at the correct angle to the wind. Hydraulic pitch systems also have a fail-safe function. In severe weather and extreme wind speeds, they will turn the blades out of the wind, thereby minimising the risk of accidents or structural failure.

AVN Energy has more than 25 years of experience in wind power. With a 1600m2 research and development centre, it supplies custom-made hydraulic systems to wind turbine manufacturers worldwide. The merger with Hydra Tech has enhanced AVN Energy’s capacity to supply its innovative technology to customers around the world.

Favourable trends

The merger has also enabled Hydra Tech to achieve synergies. In Denmark, production of the hydraulic cylinders is being concentrated at the Vrå site, allowing the AVN Energy factory to the south in Silkeborg to focus on the other elements of the pitch systems as well as on turbine cooling technology.

Hydra Tech is heavily oriented towards export and can take advantage of favourable trends in both wind power and the offshore sector. According to the company: “The marine market is a bit saturated right now, but there is a lot of optimism in offshore because high oil prices are stimulating investment in deepwater equipment. Governments are turning to renewable energy as a way to realise their ambitions for lowering CO2 emissions, and this is one factor behind the growth in renewable energy.” In addition, Hydra Tech has been looking for openings in South America, where the wind power sector could represent a promising new market for the company. n