Wind Turbine Inspections
It is essential to keep your wind turbines operating at peak efficiency. However, environmental issues like lightning strikes, snow, and ice, combined with the continual stress of normal operating conditions, can cause them to degrade over time, making regular inspections and a systematic maintenance program necessary.
Wind turbine blades are regularly subjected to extreme operating conditions. This stress can accelerate blade degradation, especially if there are any undetected manufacturing defects. Let us help you complete safe and efficient turbine inspections that ensure safe operations while minimizing maintenance spending.
Non-Destructive Testing
We use inspection techniques called NDT (non-destructive testing- also known as NDE), which detects both structural irregularities and surface flaws before they can cause a failure.
Rope Contractors will use visual (drone) and infrared imaging systems to carry out a periodic inspection of your installed rotor blades. These non-destructive inspection methods can detect cracks, erosion, delamination, and other conditions that can lead to critical damage and system breakdown.
Drones
When inspections are carried out via drone, it significantly reduces costs compared to hands-on methods. Drones can conduct high-quality full blade inspections on up to five turbines in a single date, with the damage findings and image documentation quality comparable to a hands-on inspection.
Other advantages include:
- Fast and efficient data capture with high-quality images
- Safer working environment: assessments are carried out at ground level instead of at height
- Reduced downtime for inspection purposes
- Real-time observations and measurements for areas that would be otherwise difficult to access
While a hands-on approach is still required for testing the lightning protection system, practically everything else can be completed by drone, representing a cost savings of 20 to 30%.
Infrared Thermographic inspection technique (IRT)
IRT delivers visualization of thermal patterns in systems such as wind turbine rotor blades. By providing real-time imaging of a rotor blade’s structural condition, it becomes possible to detect issues such as:
- Delaminations
- Variations in thickness
- Foreign bodies
- Erosion
- Impact damage
- Bondline failure
Disaster Assessment
If the unexpected happens, our multi-disciplined team can save you time and money by carrying out the precise and accurate disaster assessment services you need to diagnose the problem and rebuild.
When you hire us for a disaster assessment, we investigate the root cause of the incident and examine all turbine components.
Our turbine inspection specialists will also evaluate transport and handling damages for blade repairability and edit assessment reports for use in a future court case.
Contact the turbine inspection experts at Rope Contractors
Rope Contractors has an industry-wide reputation for fast and efficient wind turbine inspections and repairs without compromising on safety. Through careful planning, effective project management, and a skilled, safety-conscious team, we strive to achieve optimal job performance every time. For more information or to schedule a site visit to discuss your turbine inspection needs, please contact us.
