I am Dave, the Technical Director for Samrey. I keep up to date with general RE issues via this website and I was pleased to see one of my products mentioned.

The Merlin is our new 3.5m dia turbine and it is indeed based upon the same basic concept of the Mistral turbine. It is a new product which has only just been released, but we have learnt a lot from our previous experience with our Wren and Mistral turbines. The website is currently being updated, but this has been delayed a little due to us working hard on the technical development. We would rather make sure that our designs and technology are up to scratch before making a big splash with publicity.

In a nutshell, the Merlin (and Mistral to some extent) has the following key features:

*Merlin Rotor Dia =3.5m, Mistral =2m
* Merlin Rated at 1100w at 8m/s (nominal). Power outputs of upto 2.7kw.
* Blade TSR of 5 (which we believe is optimum)
* Specific Grid-tie and battery charging variants. As with the Mistral, the Battery charging variants utilise 3-phase transformers to avoid the cost of large cables and volt-drop.
* Side furling (with rigid tail boom).
* Axial flux PMG's
* A selection of mono-pole towers and guyed towers (as well as dump-loads & controllers).

These are just a few key points and we feel there are a lot of other advantages to our products. Please keep an eye on our website as we will be updating very soon.

--
Dave Samuel
(Technical Director)

Thanks for the comments.
The furling is a fairly complicated thing to try and explain. Our turbines use the same broad furling principle that a lot of upwind turbines use (such as bergey) - but we have changed the way in which it operates.

It is difficult to see, but on the Mistral and Merlin turbines the yaw pivot is offset from the centreline of the turbine. Also, the tail booms are rigidly attached at an angle when looking from above. Finally, the pivoting tail-fin itself is mounted via teflon bearings on an incline. All of these things work together to create a gravity reset furling system. Without getting into the nitty gritty of it all, at high windspeeds the thrust from the rotor overcomes the yawing moment of the tail fin - making the turbine want to dry and go downwind. At the same time a lifting force is present on the tail-fin which pushes it upon against its inclined pivot. The result is that the rotor yaws to a 'glancing angle' to the oncoming wind. This reduces the exposed rotor area and also puts the rotor blades at incorrect angles of attack. This helps regulate rotor speed, but also reduces the overall forces exerted. When the gust has passed, gravity pulls the tail fin back to its normal position and the turbine reorientates back into the wind.

One of the main features of our design is that only the tail-fin pivots rather than the entire tail boom. This exponential reduces the stresses encountered along the tail boom /fin. It also helps prevent wear and tear as fin and boom are not free to articulate under normal running conditions.

A picture says a thousand words. I have attached a photo of the furling in operation.

Many Thanks,
Dave
--
dave

Welcome to RRR. When you are ready why not start posting some of the Samreys outputs on our graph.

--
Stuart

We will look at doing that.

We are currently setting up a web-connected 'ideal' site to act as an online show room for our products. This will be connected to a live website showing the energy production (accumulated and instantaneous), weather conditions and all the usual parameters etc.

We have a similar setup to test our smaller turbines remotely in the Rocky Mountains, but this isn't quite suitable for general release.

Ofcourse, I will let you know when the project is near completion.

--
Dave