BGB is now entering its fourth decade of supporting the global wind industry. What began with three founders spotting an opportunity to manufacture brush gear in the UK, something relatively uncommon at the time, has grown into a much wider capability.

As the company expanded into slip rings, one point became clear early on: long-term success would not come from trying to do everything in-house, but from building strong, trusted partnerships across the industry. Rather than developing brushes in isolation, BGB chose to form strategic alliances to accelerate innovation and deliver greater value for customers.

That collaborative approach has delivered results.

Over the past three years, BGB has supported a major OEM with the design and specification of a slip ring solution for its offshore flagship 15 MW turbine.

The requirements were clear:

• maintain the highest quality standards

• extend maintenance intervals for brush replacement

Working closely with our exclusive partner, BGB Brushes, we jointly designed and manufactured a new BGB brush and brush holder solution that significantly extends service intervals. The outcome is a measurable improvement in reliability and total cost of ownership.

Being a trusted partner sits at the heart of our culture. This is reinforced by the use of several climatic test chambers, which allow our experienced team to replicate real operating conditions and duty cycles by varying temperature, humidity, current and speed. While turbines using the new solution are now leaving the production line and being installed globally, we continue to push the system to destruction testing to build confidence in long-term performance.

The result is that we are now approaching the equivalent of nine years’ service life, with no signs of slowing down.

It is a strong reminder that real innovation rarely happens in isolation. It is built through trust, collaboration and shared ambition.