Not-Destructive Testing in Wind market: what's new in terms of digitalisation and complete solutions?

As the demand for wind energy grows, so does the need for effective inspection solutions, however, presents several challenges. Wind farms are often situated in remote locations, where they are subject to harsh environmental conditions, including extreme temperature fluctuations, high winds, and airborne contaminants.

Over time, this can cause a variety of turbine and towers issues, including corrosion, blade damage, and electrical faults—all of which can reduce energy production and lead to catastrophic failure if left unattended.

Inspecting the inner workings of a turbine presents its own set of challenges, as many critical elements, including gearboxes and generator components, are difficult to access. This means that costly and time-consuming disassembly is usually required for inspection.

Furthermore, for the inspection of wind turbine towers and blades, thanks to the "Phased-Array" inspection technology it guarantees 100% mapping of defects both on the surface and inside the inspected surfaces and helps to create a detailed history of the health status of the components, useful for planning future interventions and estimating the life cycle of the wind farm.

Thanks to these innovative inspection technologies, the risk of tower failure can be reduced by 60-70%, while for wind turbine blades, accidents due to cracks, wear or detachment of parts of the blades can be prevented in 70-80% of cases; finally, for gearboxes, accidents related to failures, such as mechanical blocks or breakages, can be reduced by up to 75%.