ABE
Research on autonomous turbine blade bolting environment for safer offshore wind
Publieke samenvatting / Public summary
Aanleiding
Wind turbines are placed on ever higher towers, to catch more wind and thus generate more power. Additionally, blades increase in size and nacelle size has to increase as well. The wind turbine components of tower, nacelle and blades are typically interconnected using bolted connections. Bringing all bolts and nuts to the right pre-tension is of immense importance for the system safety of the turbines. To automate this process, IntoMachines B.V. has developed the ABM.
Doelstelling
The goal of this project is to perform research on the occurrence and the effect of vibrating environmental conditions of an offshore wind turbine and communication possibilities with a remote working robot.
Korte omschrijving
The ABM is able to work on non-horizontal flanges of blades and can pre-tension bolts without interference of an operator. The advantage here are: - The operator is not present during tensioning operations under high hydraulic pressure, which reduces risk of injury and therefore greatly increases personnel safety. - The ABM documents all tensioning parameters of each bolt and thereby prevents any loose or wrongly tightened bolts, which reduces risk on bolt failure and therefore greatly increases system safety of the wind turbine. - Cost of installation and maintenance are strongly reduced since installation vessels already continue installing / maintaining the next turbine while the ABM is autonomously finishing bolting works. This saves considerable vessel and man-hour rates.
Wind turbines are placed on ever higher towers, to catch more wind and thus generate more power. Additionally, blades increase in size and nacelle size has to increase as well. The wind turbine components of tower, nacelle and blades are typically interconnected using bolted connections. Bringing all bolts and nuts to the right pre-tension is of immense importance for the system safety of the turbines. To automate this process, IntoMachines B.V. has developed the ABM.
Doelstelling
The goal of this project is to perform research on the occurrence and the effect of vibrating environmental conditions of an offshore wind turbine and communication possibilities with a remote working robot.
Korte omschrijving
The ABM is able to work on non-horizontal flanges of blades and can pre-tension bolts without interference of an operator. The advantage here are: - The operator is not present during tensioning operations under high hydraulic pressure, which reduces risk of injury and therefore greatly increases personnel safety. - The ABM documents all tensioning parameters of each bolt and thereby prevents any loose or wrongly tightened bolts, which reduces risk on bolt failure and therefore greatly increases system safety of the wind turbine. - Cost of installation and maintenance are strongly reduced since installation vessels already continue installing / maintaining the next turbine while the ABM is autonomously finishing bolting works. This saves considerable vessel and man-hour rates.