Patent ID: 9297454
Filing Date: 2016-03-29
CPC Classification: F01M,F03D,F16H,F16N,Y02E,Y10T

Claim Text:
1. A gear unit for an industrial application or a wind turbine, comprising: a gear unit housing; a drive shaft mounted in the gear unit housing and extending through a first housing opening; an output shaft mounted in the gear unit housing and extending through a second housing opening; at least one gear wheel connected to the drive shaft and at least one gear wheel connected to the output shaft, said gear wheels directly or indirectly engaging with one another; a lubricant tank having one side connected to a drain of a lubricant sump formed in a base of the gear unit housing and another side connected to at least one lubricant feed point for at least one member selected from the group consisting of a bearing and an adjacent one of the gear wheels; a lubricant compensating reservoir fluidly connected to the lubricant tank and to the at least one lubricant feed point as a function of a pressure and/or temperature of lubricant; and a lubricant pump connected to a lubricant circuit comprised of the lubricant sump, the lubricant tank, the lubricant compensating reservoir and the at least one lubricant feed point; and a control unit configured to adjust a level in the lubricant sump to a dry sump level by pressure-feed or force-feed lubrication for normal operation, to a medium sump level by splash lubrication for part-load operation, and to a high sump level by splash lubrication for emergency or spinning operation when the lubricant pump is switched off in the emergency or spinning operation.