Wind Turbine Blade Cavity Filling for Robotic Tip Balancing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for balancing wind turbine blades by adding weight to the tip are inefficient, unsafe, and require manual intervention, which can cause aerodynamic disturbances and are difficult to predict resonance issues.
Innovation Solution
A robotic system is employed to drill holes, inject a solidifying substance, and seal the holes using a robotic arm with custom attachments and UV curable material, ensuring precise and safe weight addition to the blade tip.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual rope-access technicians are used to add weight to blade tips, then the blade balancing can be performed, but the process is unsafe, inefficient, and requires complex manual operations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical operations with an automated robotic system. The robotic arm performs drilling, injection, and sealing operations that were previously done manually by rope-access technicians, thereby improving safety and efficiency simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic system is self-contained with all necessary tools (drill, injection device, sealing mechanism) integrated into one unit. The system autonomously performs the complete blade balancing process without requiring manual intervention, achieving both safety and productivity improvements.
2Productivity
If weight is added from the outside of the blade, then the blade balancing can be achieved, but it causes aerodynamic disturbance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from external weight addition to internal weight addition by injecting material through drilled holes into the blade's internal cavity. This dimensional transition from outside-to-inside eliminates aerodynamic disturbance while achieving the same balancing effect.
3Manufacturing precision
If a robotic system is used to drill and fill the blade tip, then safety and precision are improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple functions (drilling, material injection, hole sealing) into a single integrated robotic tool. This merging reduces the number of separate devices and operations needed, thereby managing device complexity while maintaining high precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic arm is equipped with a multi-functional tool that can perform drilling, injection, and sealing operations. This universal tool reduces the need for multiple specialized devices, balancing device complexity with manufacturing precision requirements.
4Reliability
If multiple manual steps are performed for blade tip filling, then the material can be properly injected, but the process time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic system performs drilling, injection, and sealing operations in continuous sequence without interruption. This eliminates the time losses associated with manual repositioning and tool changes, while the automated control ensures reliable material injection throughout the continuous process.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables faster, safer, and more precise weight balancing of wind turbine blades, minimizing aerodynamic disturbances and reducing the risk of resonance by using a robotic system for automated hole drilling and filling.
Implementation Method 1
a universal robotic arm can be used with custom attachment that uses suction cups with UV curable material, peristaltic pump and UV light to fill them, cure and leave a flat surface
Implementation Method 2
during the curing the injected material may have an exothermic reaction. According to this embodiment, the temperature can be conducted or applied to at least one blade wall or its segment
Implementation Method 3
observed from the outside using thermal camera
Data Source
Figure 1A~1D
Figure 2~3
Figure 4
AI summary
The invention relates to the wind turbines and wind turbine blades' maintenance devices, in particular, to the methods and devices for introducing a solidifying substance into the inner cavity of wind turbine blades. The method for introducing a solidifying substance into an inner cavity of a wind turbine blade, the method comprising the following steps: (i) drilling coaxial apertures in a wind turbine blade opposite walls by a filing means comprising a drilling means, a rod and a core fixed together, wherein the core is provided with a channel and one or more apertures connected with the channel and designed to allow supply of a liquid or semiliquid solidifying material through the channel and the apertures; wherein the rod is made from the same material as the wind turbine blade, or a material having equivalent properties; (ii) pushing out the drilling means through the created apertures so that the apertures in the core part of the filling means are located in the inner cavity of the blade; (iii) supplying a solidifying substance in the liquid or semiliquid form into the inner cavity of the blade through the channel and aperture or apertures of the core part of the filling means; (iv) partially pulling or pushing out the filling means so that only the rod part of the filling means remains within the inner cavity of the blade; (v) cutting away the ends of the rod of the filling means from the outer sides of the wind turbine blade, so that the rod part of the filling means remains within the inner cavity of the blade and the ends of the rod part are closing the apertures made in the wind turbine blade walls.