Wind Turbine Blade Transport Frame with Stud-Bolt Interface Clamp
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing size and weight of wind turbine blades pose logistical challenges during storage, transportation, and handling, leading to costly, time-consuming processes that can result in damage and require frequent switching between different storage or transport structures, especially when transferring between production and installation sites.
Innovation Solution
A transport frame system with a longitudinal, lateral, and upright extent, featuring a root saddle and a releasable interface clamp that securely fixes the blade root using stud-bolts, allowing for secure stacking and easy handling, with optional features like length-adjustability and a lock mechanism to prevent accidental disengagement, facilitating multiple stages of transportation and storage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple different storage or transport structures are used for different stages, then each stage can be optimized individually, but the process becomes costly, time-consuming and requires repeated switching between structures
Solution Approach 1:
The transport frame is designed to perform multiple functions across different stages of the blade lifecycle. The same frame structure is used for transportation from production site, interim storage, and final installation, eliminating the need to switch between different storage and transport structures. The frame includes universal features like stackable design with bearing surfaces, adjustable clamps, and stud-bolt engagement mechanisms that work effectively in all stages.
Solution Approach 2:
The transport frame is divided into functional segments that can be independently adjusted or configured. The frame includes separate clamps, bearing surfaces, and stud-bolt engagement mechanisms that can be positioned and adjusted according to specific stage requirements, allowing the same overall structure to adapt to different operational needs without requiring complete structure changes.
2Stability of the object's composition
If traditional fixed clamps are used to secure blade root, then the blade is restrained, but the blade cannot accommodate height differences or tilting between tip and root frames
Solution Approach 1:
The clamp mechanism incorporates a stud-bolt engagement system that allows dynamic adjustment. The stud-bolts can be positioned at different locations on the blade root, and the clamps can be adjusted to accommodate varying heights and angles. This dynamic capability enables the frame to adapt to height differences between tip and root frames while maintaining secure restraint of the blade during transport.
3Quantity of substance
If stackable frames are used to transport multiple blades, then storage efficiency improves, but the frames require precise alignment and additional complexity to ensure proper stacking
Solution Approach 1:
The transport frame incorporates bearing surfaces at the base and corresponding support structures at the top that create equipotential stacking interfaces. These surfaces are designed with complementary geometries that naturally guide proper alignment when frames are stacked. The stud-bolt engagement mechanisms and clamps are positioned to ensure that stacked frames automatically align, reducing the need for complex adjustment procedures while maintaining secure multi-blade capacity.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5
AI summary
Transport frame and method; the transport frame having a longitudinal, lateral and upright extent, and configured for transporting a root end of a longitudinally extending wind turbine blade having a root face with protruding stud-bolts, said frame comprising a root saddle, said frame further comprising a releasable interface clamp configured for fixing a said blade root in said frame, said interface clamp extending from a forward nose through a rear hinge point in said root frame and, said interface clamp comprising a body with a forward abutment surface and a bearing surface rearward of said abutment surface, said body being hingedly movable into or out of engagement with one or more stud bolts protruding from the root face of a blade when positioned in said saddle, said interface clamp having a retracted position with its body away from said blade root face and away from said protruding stud- bolts, said interface clamp having an engagement position in which its said bearing surface extends transverse and adjacent to one or more said stud-bolts such that a tightening force applied to a said bearing surface pushes said abutment surface against said root face.