Wind turbine blade including protective cover
AssigneePolytech A/S
InventorsMads Kirkegaard, Thomas Gliese
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A wind turbine blade includes a protective cover attached along the blade by a layer of adhesive. The adhesive is a general purpose adhesive, and the adhesive forms a joint or sealing between an outer edge of the cover section of the blade and the surface of the blade so that the outer edge is covered by the adhesive and so that the joint forms an oblique surface from the outer edge to the surface of the blade. The joint has a first height at the outer edge and a second height at the position where it ends at the surface of the blade. The second height is smaller than the first height and smaller than 0.2 millimetres, and the joint is integrally formed with the layer of adhesive.
Claims20
A wind turbine blade, comprising:
- a protective cover, wherein the protective cover is made of a polymer material, wherein the protective cover is attached along at least a part of a longitudinal edge of the wind turbine blade by a layer of adhesive arranged between an inside of the protective cover and a surface of the longitudinal edge of the wind turbine blade;
- the protective cover being elongated in a longitudinal direction and having an at least substantially U-formed cross-section;
- the protective cover including a central cover section extending in the longitudinal direction and two peripheral cover sections extending in the longitudinal direction at either side of the central cover section and each having an outer edge, respectively, wherein the central cover section has a minimum thickness of at least 1 millimetre, and wherein each peripheral cover section has a thickness decreasing from a maximum thickness of at least 1 millimetre to a minimum thickness at its outer edge of less than 1 millimetre;
- and
- the adhesive being a general purpose adhesive, wherein the adhesive forms a joint between the outer edge of each peripheral cover section and the surface of the longitudinal edge of the wind turbine blade so that the outer edge is at least substantially completely covered by the adhesive over its entire thickness and so that the joint forms an oblique surface from the outer edge of each peripheral cover section to the surface of the longitudinal edge of the wind turbine blade, wherein the joint has a first height at the outer edge and a second height at the position where it ends at the surface of the longitudinal edge of the wind turbine blade, wherein the second height is smaller than the first height and smaller than 0.2 millimetres, wherein the joint is integrally formed with the layer of adhesive arranged between the inside of the protective cover and the surface of the longitudinal edge of the wind turbine blade.
A method of providing a wind turbine blade with a protective cover, whereby the protective cover is made of a polymer material, whereby the protective cover is attached along at least a part of a longitudinal edge of the wind turbine blade, whereby the protective cover is elongated in a longitudinal direction and has an at least substantially U-formed cross-section, whereby the protective cover includes a central cover section extending in the longitudinal direction and two peripheral cover sections extending in the longitudinal direction at either side of the central cover section and each having an outer edge, respectively, whereby the central cover section has a minimum thickness of at least 1 millimetre, and wherein each peripheral cover section has a thickness decreasing from a maximum thickness of at least 1 millimetre to a minimum thickness at its outer edge of less than 1 millimetre, and whereby the attachment procedure includes the following steps:
- providing an adhesive, such as a two component epoxy adhesive, on an inside of the protective cover,
- pressing the inside of the protective cover against a surface of the longitudinal edge of the wind turbine blade,
- removing excess adhesive leaking between each peripheral cover sections and the surface of the longitudinal edge of the wind turbine blade, wherein the adhesive is a general purpose adhesive, and by that the attachment procedure includes the following steps:
- before application of the protective cover on the wind turbine blade, provisionally adhering a masking tape on the surface of the longitudinal edge of the wind turbine blade along and at a distance from the outer edge of each peripheral cover section, the masking tape having a thickness of less than 0.2 millimetres,
- after application of the protective cover on the wind turbine blade, scraping excess adhesive leaking between each peripheral cover section and the surface of the longitudinal edge of the wind turbine blade, and
- removing the masking tape from the surface of the longitudinal edge of the wind turbine blade.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.