SmartRoMaIn: Smart Rotorblade Manufacturing and Inspection

At a glance

• Despite high safety factors and the resulting manufacturing tolerances, critical manufacturing deviations can still occur during the production of rotor blades and require costly rework. If these deviations are left undetected, there is a risk of damage to the blades during operation.
• In the SmartRoMaIn research project, the project partners are developing a linked measuring system to detect and eliminate manufacturing deviations at an early stage.
• The data collected in the process will increase the understanding of the production process and make it possible to reduce manufacturing deviations in the future.
• Fraunhofer IWES, the project coordinator, is responsible in a subproject for the parallelization of automated measuring processes and assisted manufacturing steps as well as for the development of a software component for quality data processing. 

The challenge

Wind turbine rotor blades are produced under high cost pressure and with high material throughputs due to their size. Manufacturing deviations occur during their production, which are compensated with safety factors and realized by additionally planned material. If the specified tolerances are exceeded, costly repairs are required in production. In addition, undetected manufacturing deviations can cause structural damage during operation and thus lead to huge downtime and repair costs.

The solution

These issues can be reduced by using linked measuring technology for quality assurance, in combination with direct feedback through visual assistance during the manufacturing process. The aim of the SmartRoMaIn project is to develop such a system. Therefore, defects and their causes can be directly detected, localized, characterized, and visualized as they arise. If necessary, defects can thus be eliminated in time. The test system also collects data which allows a deeper understanding of process steps and thus allowing more efficient documentation and analysis of the manufacturing process as well as the product quality. Costs arising from rework and waste of material can thus be noticeably lowered and product quality increased.

The added value

Fraunhofer IWES, the project coordinator, is responsible in a subproject for the parallelization of automated measuring processes and assisted manufacturing steps as well as for the development of a software component for quality data processing. The testing of hardware and software of various testing, visualization, and manufacturing systems as well as the planned target system in real processes and on semi-finished products from rotor blade production will be performed at the Fraunhofer IWES facilities (BladeMaker Demo Center) in Bremerhaven.