GE Renewable Energy claims success in automated wind blade finishing

GE Renewable Energy, LM Wind Power and GE Research have carried out successful trials of automated blade finishing.

Blade finishing includes trimming excess material after molding and grinding blade surface to meet quality requirements.

The trio carried out the tests as part of a programme launched by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The programme aims to use knowledge of advanced composite processing, as well as sensing, robotics and automation to develop wind blade finishing.

They successfully performed the trial at GE Renewable Energy subsidiary LM Wind Power’s factory in Grand Forks, North Dakota. This followed using the NREL’s composite manufacturing education and technology facilities to perform quick proof of concept trials on blade sections.

In the future, they aim to use robotics to carry out blade finishing.

The research partners hope that automated blade finishing can improve throughput, and environmental health and safety, as well as quality, in wind turbine blade manufacturing.

GE Renewable Energy now hopes to industrialise this technology, according to the company’s technical leader of automation, Arvind Rangarajan.

James Martin, director of LM Wind Power’s technology centres in the Americas added that the blade manufacturer aims to use the process in its next product and factory cycle.