LM Wind Power Blade Power Loss Tool, ZF Rotating Gearbox

On Power-Up this week, LM Wind Power's method using thermal imaging
to estimate power performance, ZF's system which allows the
generator to be rotated independently from the gearbox, and a
patent for a flame-throwing trumpet. Fill out our Uptime listener
survey and enter to win an Uptime mug! Register for Wind Energy
O&M Australia! https://www.windaustralia.com Sign up now for
Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind
technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard
Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape
Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show
on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit
Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes'
YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the
show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting -
https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech -
www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Phil
Totaro: This is Power Up, where groundbreaking wind energy ideas
become your clean energy future. Here's your hosts, Allen Hall and
Phil Totaro. Allen Hall: First up this week, Phil, is an idea from
LM Wind Power, and this idea uses thermal imaging to turbine
turbulence and then to use that data to predict the power
calculations and energy production. on an actual wind turbine
blade. So this approach is thermal imaging can detect turbulence
and losses on a blade. If you can use that data then in a
calculation, in a predictive model, then you can pretty well
estimate what the power output of a turbine would be. This is a
really useful piece of information. If you're trying to predict the
outcome of a wind farm and what the power production will be like.
Phil Totaro: Yeah. And this is, this is not new in terms of
utilizing, infrared technology. We've actually done this before in
the industry, not only for, remote inspections and things like
that. But to apply this technology to an operational asset where
you're using that output for modeling purposes is unique because
what they're able to actually detect is changes in surface
roughness. So when it comes to figuring out leading edge erosion
and how much is that actually dinging your performance and your
annual energy production, this comes in kind of handy. But it's my
understanding that, LM isn't the only company that's been
investigating this, right? Allen Hall: Yeah. There've been several
efforts in the EU to do this. We've had some of them on the
podcast. The technique is very fascinating, because you wouldn't
think you could see turbulence with an infrared camera and, but you
can. And once you do that, then you can use the BEM method of
calculating power production, which is how a lot of Blazer design
is with the BEM method. The tools are all available. The missing
link was just really determining how much turbulence there was on a
blade. And this idea makes an infinite amount of sense if it can be
put into production. There's a lot of theoretical things we talk
about on the podcast that are really hard to implement. This is
going to be one of them. Getting some real thermal images off of
blades is not the easiest thing in the world to do. Phil Totaro:
Yeah, but it makes for a valuable IP for a company like LM to own
and there's a high degree of likelihood that this technology could
be obviously leveraged by GE their parent organization, or even
licensed to some of these other companies. Our next Allen Hall:
idea is Phil Totaro: from ZF Frederick Allen Hall: Schaffen, AG,
and it is a patent that presents an innovative design for
maintaining wind turbine gearboxes with integrated generators. Now,
the key innovation is a special gearing system that allows the
generator rotor to be rotated independently from the gearbox output
shaft during maintenance. And this enables technicians to safely
position and lock the rotor for service without having to
completely remove the gearbox. There's a lot of operational
improvements. If this could be done, Phil, is this being
implemented anywhere? Have you seen it out in the field? Phil
Totaro: Yes, actually. So that's a really great question because,
ZF is obviously a pioneer in gearbox technology and has designed a
lot of the going back a number of years, 15, 20 years, they were
the pioneer of a lot of the large capacity. Gearboxes, they
famously brought a gearbox for a 10 megawatt wind turbine to the
Wind Energy Hamburg event one year. And, we're starting to get even
bigger. But you mentioned something else that was pretty key to
this, which is, There's a lot of companies that are starting to
shift towards this kind of integrated semi direct drive, what they
call semi direct drive. It's basically a permanent magnet generator
connected and coupled to a, at least a two or maybe three stage
gearbox. So that you can you know, at least get a a decent RPM
going. The higher the RPM you can get on the generator, the more
efficient and smaller the air gap you can usually maintain on the
generator. So having that technology implemented, but also a way to
facilitate service, because as you mentioned, in the past with,
without this technology and without this design, somebody wanted
to. service a and an integrated generator design, particularly on a
larger onshore or what this was originally designed for, which is
an offshore machine. You would have to bring out a big crane. And
you might have to actually physically decouple, or you could try
using one of these onboard cranes. There's a few companies out
there that are obviously doing that technology as well. But it
still meant you had to physically decouple. So the fact that
they've designed something that is integrated into the system that
allows you to decouple without physical removal of the gearbox or
the generator, that's actually very useful from a maintenance
standpoint. And that's why this is one of the more Useful
inventions and clever inventions that is, actually has a practical
purpose in the industry. Allen Hall: Now for our fun patent of the
week is a 1981 application that describes a trumpet modified to
shoot controlled flames. from its bell. Now the inventor created
the system using a butane cartridge mounted on the trumpet's body
with a valve mechanism allowing the musician to control the gas
flow and a spark wheel ignition system at the bell that creates an
impressive flame shooting out the end of the trumpet. Now, Phil, in
the era of Michael Jackson getting his hair caught on fire from
pyrotechnics, this idea seemed that it would have a very short
lifetime, because that happened just after this patent would have
been released. Phil Totaro: Yeah, and I don't know that I've ever
actually seen anybody do this in real life with a flamethrower
trumpet, although Ron Burgundy famously did have his flamethrowing
flute in Anchorman, cool. Hollywood at least likes ideas like this,
and maybe that's the only way we can ever see it implemented. Allen
Hall: Would they have had to pay rights for that, to put that in
the movie? Even though it's a trumpet that's shown in the patents,
would it have been pretty much any instrument that shot off flames
that was blown into a flute or a trumpet? I Phil Totaro: mean, the
mechanism is still the same. Alan, this is actually a really good
and important question for everybody to hear and understand. I
actually don't think so, because the patent application we're
talking about for the trumpet, it's specific to a trumpet. And so
that, that actually comes into play a lot in even, the wind energy
sector that we talk about, because there's all kinds of ideas that
people have where they write the patent claims very specifically to
offshore wind or onshore wind. And you'll also see companies go the
other direction where they write something highly generic, whether
it's related to a generator or a blade. They may not say. A wind
turbine blade. They may even be talking about utilizing the
technology on a fan blade in a turbo generator or an airplane
engine. So to answer your question, no, I don't think they owe
royalties for this guy's flamethrowing trumpet patent. But it's, it
does actually make a big difference the way you construct your
claims because if flamethrower trumpet man had had just been, a
little less specific about this being a trumpet in his patent
claims, then he might've been able to get some royalties out of I
think it was Warner Brothers that was the producer and distributor
of of Anchorman. So who knows? Maybe Will Ferrell owns the patent
for Allen Hall: the flamethrowing flute.