WTG Internal Blade Inspections
The internal inspection of of WTG Blades is something often overlooked, but left unchecked for long periods of time allows internal defects, which could be related to external damage, – such as lightning strikes or impact to progress- costing more in the longer terms and possibly even resulting in catastrophic failure.
Like external visual inspections, Rope access is expensive and timely, meaning the downtime of the turbine ends up being 90% longer, than if using UAV’s for inspection.
In order to streamline the process, we are often able to carry out the internal inspections, which the external ones are also carried out, the only addition being that the rotor is pinned each time it is in position before we enter the hub.
Typically this multi-layered approach can be turned around within 60 minutes on a 2MW turbine for example. These times vary dependant on the environmental conditions and work processes laid out by the site owners or management company.
Using the latest in collision-tolerant drone technology, we are able to fly into confined spaces and accurately take high resolution video and images and even thermal data, whilst visual locked on to the surface we are looking at.
The Advanced oblique lighting system allows us to look at defects in the right type of illumination to reduce shadowing, giving us an even better insight to the damage, which could be related to an external defect, internal stress or even a manufacturing defect that has gone undetected.
Because of the speed that these inspections can be carried out, it means O&M can carry out visual inspections more regularly as part of their preventive maintenance programme, often slashing costs vastly on repairs in the long term.
Whats more, all of our wind farm support team are GWO trained and Advanced Rescue trained, elevating the need to bring in multiple sub-contractors just to assist with UAV inspections. Our AT’s are trained to work on Senvion, Vestas, Siemens, Nordex and others
KEY BENEFITS
- Top data quality
- Rigorous inspections yielding authoritative data
- Comprehensive info on internal blade health
- Results relevant to your customers
- Centralized data management
- Consistency
- Process is highly repeatable for future checks
- Advanced defect recognition
- Better trend analysis based on accumulative data
- Higher productivity levels
- High level of automation
- Ease of use
- More blades inspected per day
- More blades assessed per hour
All of our drone pilots and assistants working offshore and offshore carry full GWO certification, including sea survival and hub rescue