Armour Edge Shields Wind Turbine Blades

Will Howell discusses Armor Edge's thermoformed polycarbonate
leading edge protection for wind turbine blades. Their solution
helps to mitigate erosion, enhance aerodynamic performance, and
extend blade life. Allen Hall: Will welcome to the podcast.
Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. So Joel and I have heard
about Armor Edge for a couple, couple of years. Yeah. You're based
in Scotland. Yeah. And we haven't seen you much in the United
States and I haven't physically touched it. And of course we're
sort of tangible. We gotta play with the the product. So this is
the first time now we're here. Gotten to see the product. Yeah.
Yeah. You wanna describe really what this product is for a leading
edge protection?  Will Howell: Yeah, absolutely. So we
are different to other LEPs out there on the market. And really
that was the whole point of our design evolution, was to try to
overcome some of the traditional downfalls of some of the other
LEDs that have been prevalent on blades. So. Um, yeah, we've been
around since, um, well about eight, eight years now. And we've been
out in the market installed since 2020. So we're, as you mentioned,
Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland is a kind of a base. So our first
installs were all offshore, north North Sea, so offshore, Denmark,
offshore [00:01:00] Germany. Very harsh, harsh
environments. But we wanted to, to design an an LEP that was, um,
really. Overcoming some of the traditional pitfalls. So for us,
that is the ease of installation, the longevity of the material,
and also the a EP benefits that we, that we see. Um, as you see for
the sample we have in front of us here today, it's uh, only a small
piece that we take to show just to, to, to show our clients and
customers. Um, but typically the shields are 850 mil mil long. Uh,
they're made of a, a custom thermoformed, um, polycarbonate, a SA
blend. We get the material formed into sheets, and then we drape
that sheet over custom design molds that are tailored for the
specific blade types. And that's how we get this perfect fit on
every different blade that we're, that we're, um, that we have out,
out there. So let's talk about the installation. Yeah.  Joel
Saxum: Because that's [00:02:00] a, that's a really
important one for me because on the podcast we always wanna talk
about what problems we're, what problems we're solving. Sure. What
problems you guys are helping the industry with. And one of the
biggest ones with LAP, and it doesn't matter what the product
really is, if it's tapes, if it's coatings, if if it's installed
wrong, it's not gonna last. Yep. Yep. That's, that's the thing. So
what have you guys done with this to help the technicians in the
field to make it easier to make it. Last I want you to put on the
line.  Will Howell: Yeah. I mean, I guess there's a lot
of technology in terms of the performance of the, of the product.
Um, both the adhesive and the material itself. But predominantly
this was designed for rope access in the North Sea, so it had to be
a product that the guys were. Able to handle up on, up on rope. Um,
it wasn't gonna be affected by climatic conditions as much, um, and
would really lead to a faster, but also therefore, a higher quality
installation because of the way that it's put on, it's not so much
of a artisanal process that some of these other LEPs seem
to [00:03:00] suffer from. We want to. Train our
technicians to deliver a high quality installation, but really you
don't have to be a master LEP installer to get our, to get our kit
on, our kit on Blade. And that's the feedback we've been getting
from the technicians is that they find it, uh, easy to handle, easy
to apply process, uh, in the field. Joel Saxum: What does
Blade Prep look like before you put it on?  Will
Howell: Well, another unique. Facet of the system is because
the shields themselves are custom formed from a a semi-rigid
material. The leading edge of the shields themselves doesn't
conform to the existing erosion on the blade. So in terms of
applying this to the blade surface, if you have existing cat one,
two, or three erosion. You don't need to repair that and bring it
back up to the original design intent. Air Aerofoil. In fact, you
just need to remove the loose or flaking material. Do a final clean
with an with an IPA. Then you're ready to apply the adhesive into
the target area. I. Draw the adhesive down with our custom
tooth [00:04:00]spreader and then apply the shield straight on
top. So you're actually using the, the high performance MMA as a
high build filler behind the shield itself,  Joel
Saxum: basically like, uh, like if you're setting tile. 
Will Howell: Yeah, very similar. Very similar. You scrape the
mud down and it  Joel Saxum: creates a couple paths 
Will Howell: and, exactly, exactly. The adhesive itself is
very high performance, so the MMA that we use has got a very high
gap fill. Indeed. It can gap fill up to an inch if you had some
severe holes on there without overheating. Um, but it can also be
installed within. Any humidity, any dew point is indifferent to
those conditions, as well as from freezing point right up to very
high temperatures, kind of 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Um, and we've,
we've seen those conditions we're installed across four different
continents now, majority starting over in Europe, offshore, and now
we're. Some North India. We've got some in Southern Australia, and
now the states, the past couple of couple of seasons where Iowa,
Wisconsin, [00:05:00]Michigan, up in the north are kind of
colder climbs as well as the southern states, Texas, Oklahoma, New
Mexico. The polycarbonate is slippery. It is. Yeah. Yeah. So does
it accumulate ice? We haven't had any specific testing on that, but
we haven't had any negative reports either. We've been less, we've
been, we've been, we've been out there in the field now for five
years. We've never lost a shields due to de bonding, we've never
had any damage to any shields reported to us. It's a very resilient
product, so we don't believe that I. Has a particular attraction to
the material, no worse than a traditional top coat. Um, we've
actually been speaking to the guys from phase break who, who you'll
know with their nine ice products and they're happy that you can
apply nine ice over the top of this if you wanted to kind of double
up that protection. Allen Hall: Yeah, because that, that does
make a lot of sense. If, if we're talking North Sea and Iowa, those
are two wildly in different environments. But the research I've
done on your [00:06:00] material. I, I, I probably saw
your early 2020 is when I first, I remember seeing Armor Edge and
thinking, okay, these guys are onto something. Knowing a little bit
about leading edge rosn on aircraft and how we deal with it there.
Mm-hmm. The technical details made sense to me. I hadn't seen it in
a shell form. Oh, there we go. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So this, this
makes a lot more sense now. So then when you actually get on a
blade offshore, which would be the probably the ideal case because
the return on investment is like instantaneous on these bigger
turbines that you're just, you're just doing very little prep at
all. Then you're just basically knocking off the little particles
that are maybe hanging on applying MNA and then just. Starting
where from the root working down, if we go from the tip up, we
actually work  Will Howell: from the, uh, tip. Yeah. So
one of the facets of our system, compared to the traditional soft
shells or the tapes, you don't have to manipulate and stretch the
material over the nose of the, of the,
uh, [00:07:00] blades. The first shield is actually a, a
section with a pressure suction side and a closed end. So it simply
fits over the top of the tip. Like a suck gives you a very Exactly.
It gives you a very. Solid boot to kind of start from, and then you
work in series from, from there in sections around 850 mil long,
working in the direction of the of, of the route. Our customers
have different lengths of application that they like to work to. We
work in sections, but typically around 20% of the blade is, is kind
of what we cover. Okay. Yeah. I, I  Allen Hall: wonder
how far they were gonna go inboard, because I've seen some where
they go really far inboard, like six to  Joel
Saxum: eight meters. Yeah.  Allen Hall: Yeah. So
you're, you're not going all that far. Yeah. Typically.  Will
Howell: You know, on the onshore machines here, some of the
typical GE blades, the 56.962 point twos up at the 10, 12 meters or
so. Okay. It's, it's just kind of a typical Okay. That  Allen
Hall: makes, that makes sense. Then, so the, the process goes
clean the blade apply MMA, put these [00:08:00] sections
on, do the interlock, and what do you do with the trailing edge?
Will Howell: Yeah, absolutely. So again, it's a. An issue that
we've seen on other, on, on other systems of either one really long
piece, which is almost impossible to handle with a pair, a pair of
texts, or having many separate pieces with a complicated join that
leaves it very exposed. Our sections are formed and then they're
very accurately CNC cuts, and we have male and female features on
either end that interlock with, um, on, on two sides of the, uh, of
the leading edge cord. And so the technicians can't get them the
wrong way round. They made up completely butting against each
other, leading to a very flush flash. Fit over that leading edge.
Leading edge section.  Joel Saxum: Yeah. 'cause I could,
I could picture like if something like this wasn't here and they
were just flat, like they're kind of like it walking off Yeah. Kind
of getting wonky on the late edge. But this is gonna keep 'em
locked in.  Will Howell: Exactly. This is alley. And so
that just, you just working, working sections towards the, towards
the roots, the adhesive that we use. Even though it's an MMA,