Patent ID: 7335128

Claim:
A drive assembly for a wind turbine comprising: a rotor hub; a supporting structure; a planetary type gear transmission unit comprising sun, planet and ring gears and a planet carrier, said ring gear being non-rotatably secured to said supporting structure; a main bearing which rotatably supports the rotor hub and planet carrier relative to said ring gear and supporting structure; a force transmission path for transmission of forces reacting with forces exerted by the wind turbine rotor hub, the force transmission path acting substantially directly from the rotor hub via said main bearing to the supporting structure primarily for transmission of overhang load forces and bending moments, while substantially isolating said forces and bending moments from the ring gear, because an inner bearing ring or outer bearing ring of the main bearing is connected substantially directly to the supporting structure, without said bearing ring being directly mounted on or supported by the ring gear; and a second force transmission path which is independent from the first force transmission path and which is acting from the rotor hub via the planet carrier primarily for transmission of rotational forces.