The blade intelligence system prevents ice from
being thrown and increases availability
Safety first: industrial climbers scale the wind tower from outside. Work on the con-
trol cabinet in the nacelle is then performed by the experts from Phoenix Contact
“We know there’s ice.
Others only suspect
that it has formed.”
Karl-Heinz Meiners,
Senior Project Manager at Phoenix Contact
practically everywhere. “The innovative thing about our sys-
tem, which we call Blade Intelligence, is the actual measure-
ment of ice and its thickness. No other system on the market
is able to do this.” “Such an ice detection system is already in
operation in the selected wind farm of the project partner wpd
windmanager. Parallel to this, blade intelligence is now being
tested. wpd windmanager hopes to obtain even more precise
results from the new sensor technology.”
The marathon sensor
The underarm-sized patch that the aphids stick to on the sur-
And if there’s a thaw or the elastic blades start to vibrate face of the wind blade, on the other hand, uses inductive mea-
unintentionally due to the uneven load, ice sheets weighing surement to detect actual ice seizure and its thickness. It also
several kilograms can lose their grip and be thrown off in the measures the temperature. “This data is then transmitted to
direction of rotation. An ice detection system is already in the control cabinet in the nacelle and evaluated by a control-
use at the towers in Lauterstein, so nobody has to duck their ler,” explains Karl-Heinz Meiners. “And since the actual for-
heads. There are also warning labels about flying ice in this mation of ice is determined in this way, the system can also
Swabian wind farm. restart automatically when there is no longer any threat of ice
formation.” The costly deployment of service teams is signifi-
On the trail of the crystal cantly reduced, and the availability of the system is drastically
The only remedy is to shut down the plant. Or a heater. “But it increased.
is very expensive, because it is extremely complicated to man- The flat apparatus not only contains inductive sensors and
ufacture or retrofit,” explains the expert Meiners. “It’s only temperature probes, but also a small solar panel, an antenna,
worthwhile if the systems are in really permanently cold en- and a battery. “The system is active for many years without
vironments.” The trained industrial electrician and graduate maintenance,” Meiners says when asked about the durability
precision and medical engineer knows what he’s talking about, of use. No wonder that the freelance aphid makes a special
having been a part of the Wind team from Phoenix Contact effort, at a height of 100 meters, to make high-tech patches’
for ten years and having worked on wind turbine generators adhesion meticulously clean. (lo)
The Phoenix Contact innovation magazine
UPDATE 4/20
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