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US 9,821,984 B2Granted
Weather maintenance system for an offshore wind turbine maintenance program
OwnerHoward M. Chin, Kimberly A. Carrahainventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An all-weather maintenance system for an offshore wind turbine maintenance program includes a maintenance capsule for transporting tools, parts and maintenance personnel to and from respective wind turbine towers, a maintenance vessel with a capsule support apparatus for transporting capsules supported on board by the capsule support apparatus to and from respective wind turbine towers, and a crane assembly with a trolley for transporting capsules between the respective wind turbine towers and the maintenance vessel.
Claims11
A maintenance system for a wind turbine tower located in the sea, said maintenance system comprising:
- a maintenance capsule for transporting wind tools, maintenance parts and other cargo, and repair people to and from the wind turbine tower, said maintenance capsule comprising:
- a seaworthy watertight, floatable container able to safely survive being disposed in the sea and protect people and cargo located in said container, said container enabling cargo and maintenance people to be loaded and unloaded from said container, said container comprising:
- an operational compartment;
- a watertight bulkhead separating said operational compartment from the remainder of the capsule;
- and
- operational equipment disposed in or extending from said operational compartment, said operational equipment comprising:
- a towrope for being grasped to enable the towing of said maintenance capsule;
- a towrope storage compartment for storing said towrope;
- a homing boat for optionally taking a part of said towing rope to a maintenance water vessel;
- and
- a launch tube for storing said homing boat;
- and
- a crane assembly extendable from a wind turbine tower, said crane assembly being able to swing around the wind turbine tower for both withdrawing capsules from a maintenance water vessel when a maintenance is to be performed on the wind turbine tower and to deposit capsules in maintenance water vessels following maintenance, said crane assembly including:
- a boom for extending from the wind turbine tower over the sea, said boom including an underside and comprising wheel support structure at said underside;
- a trolley for engaging said maintenance capsule for movement to and from the wind turbine tower, said trolley including:
- a trolley movement structure for moving along said boom to and from the wind turbine tower;
- and
- a capsule attachment line holding-and-releasing apparatus for selectively holding and releasing a capsule attachment line for engagement by said trolley for selectively enabling said maintenance capsule to be moved to or from the wind turbine tower.
15 more elements
A maintenance system for a wind turbine tower located in the sea, said maintenance system comprising:
- a maintenance capsule for transporting wind turbine maintenance tools, maintenance parts and other cargo, and repair people to and from the wind turbine tower, said maintenance capsule comprising:
- a seaworthy watertight, floatable container able to safely survive being disposed in the sea and protect people and cargo located in said container, said container enabling cargo and maintenance people to be loaded and unloaded from said container;
- a personnel compartment;
- a cargo compartment;
- and
- a personnel/cargo watertight bulkhead separating said personnel compartment and said cargo compartment;
- a crane assembly extendable from a wind tower, said crane assembly including:
- a boom for extending from the wind turbine tower over the sea;
- a trolley for engaging said maintenance capsule for movement to and from the wind turbine tower, said trolley including:
- a trolley movement structure for moving along said boom, said trolley movement structure moving said trolley along said boom to and from the wind turbine tower.
7 more elements
A maintenance system for a wind turbine tower located in the sea, said maintenance system comprising:
- a maintenance capsule for transporting wind tools, maintenance parts and other cargo, and repair people to and from the wind turbine tower, said maintenance capsule comprising:
- a seaworthy watertight, floatable container able to safely survive being disposed in the sea and protect people and cargo located in said container, said container enabling cargo and maintenance people to be loaded and unloaded from said container;
- a crane assembly extendable from a wind tower, said crane assembly including:
- a boom for extending from the wind turbine tower over the sea;
- a trolley for engaging said maintenance capsule for movement to and from the wind turbine tower, said trolley including:
- a trolley movement structure for moving along said boom, said trolley movement structure moving said trolley along said boom to and from the wind turbine tower;
- an operational compartment;
- a watertight bulkhead separating said operational compartment from the remainder of said maintenance capsule;
- and
- operational equipment disposed in or extending from said operational compartment.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.