ABB Robotics - Painting wind turbine rotor blades

Enercon has installed two ABB robots in its new paint facilities for painting rotor blades. This is the first installation of its kind, able to complete the entire finishing process on large dimension rotor components.

Finishing consists of two layers: The first layer is the gel coat. . The ABB robots provides the exact amount of gel coat for the required thickness: Depending on the amount of stress on a particular area, thicknesses may vary between 0.3 mm where loads are light and 0.6 mm along the leading edge or so-called nose (part of
blade in first contact with wind) where loads are particularly high. The second layer is an environmentally
friendly water-based varnish. Colour schemes ranging from plain grey to diagonal red-white-red-grey stripes are
fully automatically coordinated without having to stop the facility in-between.
Paint and finishing robots require extremely sophisticated control systems. An even coat can only be obtained with smooth-flowing motions. This is achieved by using seven axis paint robots. The electronic control system not only coordinates the robots seven axes but at the same time monitors all the other technical parameters such as temperature, viscosity, spray pressure and the correct paint dosage, explains Torsten Link, ENERCONs expert for blade finishing.

Enercon manufacture the world's largest turbine blades with rotor diameters of over 125 meters. The paint protects the blades against the weather conditions which they are exposed to throughout their lifetime. The new robots have resulted in improved production capacity and deliver consistently high quality rotor blades.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• ABB
• Robotics
• robots
• painting
• turbine
• blades
• rotor
• windmill

[ABBRobotics]

@deniskatashkentskiy Oh no we are not robots. There are real people back here.

[davepamn]

The robots were cooler than the blade

Why use two robots and not ten?

[ABBRobotics]

@davepamn The cycle time for the manufacture of the blade itself dictates the number of robots required to balance that cycle. In this case it is two.

[tomcokis]

Isn't it a bit of a waste painting the thing?

[ABBRobotics]

@tomcokis The very special coating helps the blades resist the elements when it has to be outside for 50 plus years.

[RobinSweden]

Is that what you call multimove? How do the robots handle stop in the spray-tip?

[ABBRobotics]

@RobinSweden The paint gun is opened and closed using compressed air. The signal that controls the air is linked to the exact location in the robots path where it is needed thereby reducing paint usage

[littlestworkshop]

I would say it was as interesting as watching paint dry but that might be the next video ;) Really neat, the robots look great in Lycra and remind me very much of Flamingos at times. Those blades are something else and I can imagine the issues with painting by hand.

[zataflex]

@mendezQI People with great capacity and inventive have no problems to find a work.

I don't get why people take a job as guaranteed.

I'm self employed I started from scratch to build my life. Every day of my life as a work is finished I'm layed off but this didn't stop me to have a family and a decent standard of living.

The idea itself that someone must work for a whole life somewhere is wrong.

[mendezQI]

ABB gets things like that thanks to the genius of its employees. Still, in the name of profit, the company is laying off workers in the plant of Galindo to hire others in Turkey paying even lower wages. 160 families will be sent straight to misery because of the greed of ABB. Watch the irreverent and unexpected video produced by the workers as protest against the greed of ABB. Search for ABB Galindo "Cierre por pelotas" in YouTube. Shame ABB. All support workers ABB!

[lexichronicle2]

Total installation capacity of UK wind turbines; 5.2 GW (about 5 normal power stations)

Output as of 2009; 27% (onshore) - 34% (offshore)

Effective capacity: 1.7GW

2MW turbine cost; £2.1 million

Rough total installation cost: £2.4 billion

Sizewell B nuclear plant capacity: 1.1GW

Output: Runs around 100% for 50 weeks of 52

Effective capacity: Close to maximum

Cost: £2 billion to build, add on expensive fuel

Winner? About the same in money it seems! But minus the nuclear fuel issues.

[Fleuver]

I could watch videos like theese for hours, more plz :)

[deniskatashkentskiy]

ABBRobotics, I am talking to this nickname hoping it's human. Or are you a robot too?

[EdersonOfficial]

Ai sim Hein !!!!!!!!!!!!

[mwarholic]

Professional looking video but almost ridiculous productivity. Why would ABB use such a small spray device? It's like painting a house with a small brush. Come on ABB, use a 30mm bell and estats and get it done.

[pigglesworth]

Are the robots assembled by robots?