Full-sized Habitat to be unveiled at RUK GOW2015
Visitors to the Renewable UK Global Offshore Wind exhibition (24-25th June 2015) will be first to see GEV Wind Power’s full-size Habitat.
Located at stand #102, the Habitat model, which has already been recognised for its innovation, will be mounted to the outside of a Power Climber blade access platform and visitors will be able to walk around to explore and experience its exciting potential. The Habitat enables an engineer to conduct essential blade maintenance in a weather-protected environment. This provides a massive step forward in meeting the needs of both field owners, keen to maximise production, and operators who want to reduce wastage from lost maintenance days.
The Habitat will enable a technician to travel to the top of the blade on the access platform, attach the patented seal and extension sleeves before inflating the habitat at the desired location on the blade. At the same time as remaining dry, the technician will be able to control the temperature and humidity of the environment immediately surrounding the repair area.
Just before the entering the platform walkway, visitors can learn more about the Panoblade camera, which rapidly captures high resolution images of an entire turbine blade surface, alleviating the need for ‘hands on’ inspection. The Panoblade camera is already being used in the field by GEV Wind Power clients and has recently been used to inspect over 70 offshore turbines in less than three weeks.
Alastair Gadney, GEV Wind Power’s projects director, comments: “There are significant cost-effective and simple advantages of utilising this remote blade inspection system. With only one operator required to inspect up to five onshore turbines per day or three offshore turbines, this system will offer exceptional savings in both time and money.”
Once within the Habitat, visitors at the show will be encouraged to trial GEV’s bespoke tablet App, I-RIS (Intuitive Reporting and Inspection System), and record maintenance activity and photograph areas of repair. I-RIS enables technicians to submit near real-time reporting on turbine maintenance activity, which significantly improves the efficiency of maintenance reporting and facilitates timely project management, whilst providing considerable cost savings across the offshore wind sector.
“Renewable UK is the perfect opportunity to showcase our cost-saving innovations,” concludes Alastair. “We launched the Habitat at Renewable UK 2014 in November, via a virtual reality simulation. Eight months on, and with a host of testing and development behind us, it’s great to be to be exhibiting at RUK GOW2015 with a full scale model in which visitors can immerse themselves and experience something pretty close to that of a working technician.”
