Weather Guard Lightning Tech
Peel Ply Elimination in Carbon Pultrusion Tech
Avient and Tight Line Composites have developed a carbon pultrusion technology without the need for peel ply. This method improves bond strength by 8%, cuts waste, reduces labor costs, and simplifies manufacturing.
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Allen Hall: Andrew and Brad, welcome to the show. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Well, we’re gonna start off by talking about carbon protrusions, because that’s the focus of your technology, title IX composites, and there’s been some recent advancements that are really fascinating, but I, I kind of wanna go back a minute because carbon pull protrusions are the future, even though we’re still making some fiberglass blades that’ll have a limited lifespan.
We’re gonna be moving to carbon protrusions because the strength and the weight. And the cost, simplicity of it, uh, just makes carbon protrusions the future. And Tightline Composites has been key in that mold of making these, uh, carbon planks and getting ’em out to industry. I. But one of the big problems with any sort of carbon plank product is it [00:01:00] usually has a peel ply.
And Andrew, you wanna talk about what that peel ply does and why it’s used and why we need it.
Andrew Davis: You really need that surface energy created by removing the peel ply to, to get an effective bond as you’re building your spark cap. And so for years, this has just been considered a necessary evil. Uh, in terms of creating, creating that effective bond.
And, and that’s, that’s the world we’ve lived in for the last 10 years.
Allen Hall: And a peel ply for those who are not deep into the composite industry. Peel, ply is a removable. Ply a fabric that’s that’s applied over the carbon on the outside and it’s kind of thicker and it has, uh, this kind of rough and surface.
So when you build the protrusion, you got these two layers of this peel ply on either side, and it travels with the product. So as, uh, tight line sends out product, these, these peel plys go with it. [00:02:00] And ideally when they get to the factory, the, the people on the floor. Pull this peel play off and it’s not fun to peel off one and two, it’s kind of invisible.
So you can forget that it’s there and install it in ablaze. And Joel, you have seen that in the field. You’ve seen protrusions where they have the ply still attached.
Joel Saxum: Yeah, it’s, it’s like, um, Alan, we saw one of the other day too, where it was like there was still a coating on a down conductor, right? So like, if you.
If you try to embed this product, the, the idea behind peel and the peel ply is you peel the peel ply, and now you have a prepped surface that can be chemically and mechanically bonded to easier or in, in, in, in a much better way, as designed. So if you forget to pull that off, now you have a structural element inside the PLA or inside of whatever you may be building in composites.
That doesn’t have the ability to bond properly to that protrusion, to that carbon plank or to that glass plank. Uh, and if that’s the case, you lose, I can’t [00:03:00] put a number to it. Right. But you lose an immense
Andrew Davis: amount of structural strength. And Joel, just to underline your point, we’ve heard from customers who will remain nameless that it is, it, it happens that, that this will get caught on scan.
Uh, when the blade is completely done, and then the entire blade has to be scrapped. There’s no, there’s no fixing it.
Allen Hall: Yeah. That, that, that gets expensive. Real quick, you’re talking about a hundred thousand dollars blades for onshore. Forget about offshore for a minute. An offshore blade, multi times, is that three or four?
Uh, so the, the, the, the engineering is right. The protrusion is the right answer and carbon is the right answer for blades, but it’s really comes down to getting. The peel ply and what, what do you wanna deal with that? ’cause the other part of the peel ply is you just create this waste cycle that peel ply gets just tossed into the garbage.
It’s not a recyclable thing, it’s one use and it’s done. So the, in the carbon protrusion world, if we can remove that peel ply, that is huge, [00:04:00]gigantic. However, it is been really hard to do that because there hasn’t been any technology to remove it, and we’ve been using it. Forever in aerospace and wind, and that’s where Brad comes in.
And Brad’s company has developed a way to eliminate the Peel ply, which is a huge cost savings and a labor savings and a, you know, a downstream savings. Brad, you wanna under describe the, what you’re bringing to Tightline and, and how this technology works.
Brad Schmidt: So we do protrusion within Aviant as well, and we’ve developed this over the last four or five years and have been using it internally.
For our own glass profiles, um, in, in various markets, including wind. Um, but essentially, yes, have eliminated the need for these glass protrusions to, uh, you know, require peel, ply or alternatively sanding or some sort of grinding process prior to, um, adhesion. So the, it is, it is actually in the chemistry of the [00:05:00] resin system.
It’s not a surface treatment and it is throughout the part. Um, so if you cut the, you know, through apart that same adhesion, uh, you know, or bond strength will be realized throughout the, the Matrix. It’s not just on the surface. Um, so again, we’ve been using this in-house for a number of years. We’ve known the Tightline team for some time, and we approach them.
Late last year, uh, about six months ago, let’s say. And um, obviously there was a lot of interest in tightline. There was a lot of skepticism at first in that, uh, this would even work, but they were willing to give it a try. So we sent them a small batch of resin with this, call it an additive in it. They ran some trials and then we tested in our lab, uh, did the lap shear testing on a traditional, uh, carbon plank with peel ply.
And then a protruded plank without peel ply. With this new chemistry, we saw on average about an 8% [00:06:00] improved improvement in bond strength in the, with the chemistry versus the traditional peel ply, and a much tighter standard deviation in that bond strength.
Joel Saxum: So let me, let me, let me get this straight. So you not only have removed waste, removed the cost of those, the procuring of the PO ply materials.
Increase the ability for manufacturing processes to be correct and at the same time have improved the strength of the bond. That’s right.
Brad Schmidt: Yeah. I mean, um, and seems too good to be true, right? And we’re trying to find out where this doesn’t work, but, but we haven’t, yeah, we have not been able to poke holes in it yet.
Um, and then on the mechanical property side, uh, they’ve actually seen a slight improvement. Um, and in theory now without Peel ply, you can add a bit more carbon. Where the PO ply would’ve previously taken up space in the dye. Right. Um, and the additive is, is at a very low concentration, so it’s had no detrimental effects on any of the mechanical.
Properties.
Allen Hall: That is amazing. So [00:07:00] obviously the first question that any composite engineer is gonna ask is, well, it, it’s a resin change, right? So I gotta requalify the material. But it’s not really a resin change are you’re still using the same resin system. Correct. So it is, it is it. Is it a magic powder or a chemical treatment to the existing resin system?
And I, you know, composite engineers are always weary of change, right? If they have something they, that they know, they tested, it’s been through all the processes and all the approvals, and now you wanna make a change. So the, the always the answer is no, which is crazy because if, if you’re improving it and you can show it and you have the data to back it up, and Ian’s gonna do that.
You can use the same resin system, just add a little bit of technology to it to remove peel ply, and, and that’s the approach. So it’s not a, um, it’s not a wholesale change in the resin system or the strength of the system. It is in the, the surface energy piece. That technology is pretty transferrable, right?
I mean, [00:08:00] pretty much anybody with an existing resin system can use this technology, right?
Brad Schmidt: Yeah, absolutely. So we developed this originally in a vinyl Lester system. We’ve since proven it out in, um, developed it in polyester as well as epoxy, which is used in the, uh, the carbon poulation process for the planks.
Um. So it’s absolutely transferrable. Like I said, it’s at a very low concentration, so it is the same base resin system just with our, uh, you know, magic powder as you referred to. And I think
Joel Saxum: I ask you a, a, a question that’s a little bit. Um, so we were talking about carbon protrusions and other kind of protrusion, cla protrusions and different vinyl es the things that you’ve done in the pultrusion space.
This is fantastic. However, let me ask you another question. If this is mixed with a resin system, where else can it be used? Can it be used in repairs? Could it be used in, I know like one of the things that happens in wind right now, Alan and I talked too about it regularly, is these root bushing pullout things and there’s a couple companies working on Gulf wind [00:09:00] technology.
We foresee there’s some people working on fixes for these. Could this be added to whatever resin systems they’re using and increase? And I’m thinking about that 8% strength in bond number. Can that be used as a repair methodology too? Yeah, without a doubt.
Brad Schmidt: Um, and actually I say 8% that’s in the epoxy system.
In our vinyl ester and polyester, we see upwards of 10 to almost 15% in a lot of cases. So yes, for repair, and I think where it gets more exciting is, um, in blade infusion. Uh, and, and there’s, we are working through some infusion trials right now. We’ve only applied this to protrusion thus far, but in theory, there’s no reason this also doesn’t work in an infusion process.
Um, and not just for wind, I think about the marine industry too, where you’re infusing a boat haul and then going back and standing the entire inside of a hu before any adhesion. So, uh, yeah, we’re really excited about the potential here. Um, this is a trade secret, so we’ve been very selective with, you know, who we partner with and we’ve [00:10:00] known the tight line team for a number of years, and there’s a high degree of trust there.
And, um, but, but yes, to answer your question, repair. Infusion, you know, we, we wanna eliminate any secondary prep, peel, ply, grinding, et cetera, prior to, uh, bonding.
Allen Hall: And Andrew, that’s gonna be great for Tightline. If you have an improved adhesion system with less stuff and less waste downstream, that’s a major advantage for Tightline.
Andrew Davis: It’s amazing. And, and I, I, you know, I don’t wanna say that we were skeptical, but, uh, the, the results were surprising and amazing in a, in a very happy way. And, um. I, you know, I, I think you hit the nail on the head, Joel, with the, you know, waste is obviously a big thing from a cost standpoint, from an environmental footprint standpoint.
There’s obviously labor cost improvements here. When you think about what one of these factories looks like, the, the peel ply is largely removed and automated process by a [00:11:00] machine that might at the same time also be chaing or whatever. Um. That’s not a hundred percent foolproof. And so you’ll have bits of peel ply that, that get stuck in there.
The machine will get gummed up and the peel ply will go everywhere. Those machines need to be maintained. You know, there’s, when you sort of add it up, there’s rework that’s caused by problems that are caused by peel, ply, and, and, and in extreme cases, scrap, um, you know, all that adds up to labor and, um. I and, and quality, right?
When you, when you sort of think about the scrap things, um, environmental e eventually you won’t need to. We, we talked to a customer who said, man, we just bought a bunch of machines to fuel ply. Like, why couldn’t you have told me this last month? Right? Um, but you know, you won’t have to buy those machines.
Um. I, you know, there’s some little subtle things like the nylon six six, that’s [00:12:00] the material that Peel ply is made out of. Um, there’s a couple things about that. It, it’s cut for each profile. There’s a fair bit of waste on our end of, oh, well we’re done with this profile. We now we need different one and this doesn’t fit.
Or We’re, we’re moving to different lengths and so these lengths don’t work anymore. We, we, on our end, throw out a fair bit of peel, ply as well. Really the historically, the only cost-effective source of Peel ply has been China. And so there’s a little bit of, you know, in the crazy world that we live in today, you know, geopolitical tariffs, all that kind of trade issues that come into play that, of course there’s peel ply in the United States for, for example, the aerospace industry.
But that’s a. Exponentially different price point. Um, so you know, all of this, when you sort of put this into the stew, it, it’s, it’s lower cost, higher quality, better manufacturability. And, and [00:13:00] for us that’s, that’s such a big deal because I, I mean, we’re the blast man standing in the independent carbon fiber plank protrusion game.
Everyone else who protrudes outside of China. Is a carbon fiber manufacturer, and we think, we continue to believe that there’s some value in, in, in that independence. But, um, it, and from, from our standpoint, we need to show, we need to show value to the OEM and everyone, everyone knows the, the financial pressures that the OEMs are under.
Um, in our corner of the universe, an enormous amount of carbon fiber supply has come online in China. That’s being protruded in China. And you know, that’s a very, that’s for the carbon blades, to your point, that being the future, that’s 40% of the cost of some of these blades. And so if you, if you’re in cost reduction mode, where are you gonna look?
[00:14:00] Well, this is by far the biggest single cost point in a blade. China looks pretty tempting. And, um, from a conversion cost, turning that fiber into plank, we are absolutely competitive with anywhere in the world because there’s just not much labor cost in it. Um, and in what we do, um, however, you know, we’re kind of in the game of TA taking all of the non-China fiber and turning it into, you know, we.
We, we continue to believe that that OEMs will not go 100% all in on a China supply chain, and they’re gonna need someone to produce that plank. You know, that’s, that’s great. But we still, we still have to be at a competitive point from a total value standpoint. And I think that’s what the partnership with Avian, why that’s amazing is because all these things that.
We’re talking about really add up to, you know, value for [00:15:00] the OEM, the lowering cost increase in quality. Those are. You know, there’s, there’s plenty of, been plenty of quality issues that, you know, add up to cost. Uh, and, um, and I think we hit both of those hot button issues with this. So I we’re really excited.
Joel Saxum: I think this is a really timely discussion. Um, Andrew, Alan, Brad, we’re sitting here talking about this because last night Alan and I had a conversation about innovation in wind in the United States, and there’s a certain OEM, uh, rhymes with, uh, shmi. Uh, that, that gave $50 million to MIT for wind based or for renewables based research.
Right. So we were thinking about what could we do with $50 million? Where does this money in research and US based wind innovation that can be actioned now? Right? That can be something that’s not. Pie in the sky, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 years into future research. While that stuff is good, we know that we need things that can change the way the [00:16:00] wind industry works today.
And that is lowering costs, making things more efficient, making things better, which is what this is. So it’s really, it’s ah. I’m excited about this conversation and you can kind of hear it, my voice right now, just simply because we’re seeing innovation happen in the United States with US-based companies that can change, uh, the competitiveness of US-based product in the wind market, but also lift that whole wind market, right?
Like this is something that can change the way things are done, that can make more us more competitive in the way we, uh, build blades and make them, and, you know. Ideally, right? We have a better, better product in the field, less RCAs for, for, uh, liberated blades and such in the field. Um, so I guess my, my next question for you guys is you’ve been, you, you, you have this partnership, avian developing the technology.
Tight line, putting it out into the field or putting it, you know, in front of clients in the field. What have you [00:17:00] received from feedback, from your, you know, basically market entry process? Like, have you been talking with blade manufacturers or OEMs and what are they saying back to you guys about the product?
Andrew Davis: I would
Joel Saxum: say
Andrew Davis: I, you know, it’s impossible to, these guys live the world of peel ply every day. It’s impossible to, to, to, to not. Uh, simultaneously be really excited to know more, but also really skeptical. Right? And, uh, so, uh, we had some, Brad and I, and, and our colleagues had some great meetings at JEC. Um, we’ve had some follow up since then.
We’ve got samples in the hands of, uh, a number of customers. They’re gonna go through the same testing that we’ve gone through, and I, you know, our. Our point of view on this, ultimately it’s, it’s the, the OEM’s decision. But is that you, you look at what this spark cap without peel [00:18:00] ply looks like, and you look at what the spark cap with, you know, made with peel ply looks like.
And I, I think you’re gonna see certainly not a worst part, but you know, probably a little bit better part. Um, and, and. Way easier to manufacture, um, you know, with lower total cost, better value. And I, you know, that’s, um, you know, I, I think, you know, that leads to a, this is a like, for like drop in kind of replacement and, um.
But, but that’s their call. And, and they’ll go through that testing and, um, and so that, that’s the phase we’re in now. Um, but I I, it, it, it was fun. I mean, you know, these meetings, if, if you’re in our position and you have these meetings with OEMs, it’s it, we’re talking about price and competitiveness and.[00:19:00]
This kind of stuff and to be able to talk about something that really sort of adds, adds a lot of value as something new and innovative was, I, it, it was a real personal highlight, I think, for everyone in the room.
Allen Hall: So let me hit you with the three F’s form, fit and function. Every engineer when they make a change like this, wants to know if any of those have changed.
Is there any change to the form, fit or function because you, the peel ply has been removed. I guess you can add a little bit more carbon to it, make it stronger. To cover up the difference.
Andrew Davis: It’s super small, but yes, you, you, if you, if you want the same properties in a slightly smaller form, that, that’s obviously what, what you’d get if you just use the same mold.
Um, if, if you want something with slightly higher properties, a little beefier, um, fill up that mold that you know and, and. Uh, that, that’s doable too. Right? So I, it’s really, uh, I, I think it’s [00:20:00] gonna be their call, but I assume they’re gonna want something that’s. More or less the same thing.
Allen Hall: So then what are the next steps here are, are we going to be going through a, a certification like with DNV?
Is that where the OEMs are headed to, to get a, a stamp on it for the product? Or is it OEM by OEM or even operator by operator? I know operators would be really interested in this technology.
Andrew Davis: I think it’s gonna be OEM by OEM. Um, and I think I, I, I, I, I, I think it will depend on their particular view of how.
How much of a drop in is this right? And, um, uh, but the, the testing, the standard testing that, you know, we’re all able to do, um, I, I think will give them enough to go on to say, Hey, you know, there may be some other confirm confirming things we want to do, but wow, this is a, this is a big difference.
Joel Saxum: I see it in that build to spec market.
I. [00:21:00] The built to print. Yes. Then you have to go through the OEM and all these things and that’s, that’s fantastic. But that built to spec market where every one of these blade manufacturers is looking for that little leg up to make them more profitable, better margins, better product, those guys are gonna jump on this thing.
I would imagine. So I
Brad Schmidt: think one other thing, you know, I didn’t mention earlier, but has come up is shelf life. Um, and we have done testing on, uh, glass protrusions, like I said, that we’ve been making for years with this technology. And, and after 12 months, there’s no fall off in properties and adhesive properties.
We’re working toward 24 months. But, uh, we don’t expect any change.
Andrew Davis: I, I think on the, on the finer points, uh, you know, just to emphasize another point Brad made earlier is there’s, there’s way less variability. In the, um, you know, with Peel ply, you there, there’s a lot of variability when you rip that peel, ply off.[00:22:00]
Um, this, this really cuts it down by or order of magnitude.
Allen Hall: Well, that’s the trouble now is that we’ve reduced the margins that you’ve talked to blade designers, the margins that come down considerably, and they’re really relying upon that carbon to do majority of the work. So improving that adhesion into the blade itself.
Gets rid of some of those margin concerns. Now you have a consistency, which is where everybody’s driving to right now. All the blade manufacturers are really trying to get the process honed in so that blades are repeatable. Time after time. This is where Tightline comes in and Ian’s technology to make this easier on blade manufacturers.
Now, if you’re a blade manufacturer, you need to get a hold of Tightline and Andrew that I guess they’ll be calling you. How did they do that? And even operators for that sense. How do operators get ahold of you to find out about the technology?
Andrew Davis: I, you, you can find us at, at tightline composites.com and, uh, call, call our office in St.
Louis, Missouri. We’re, uh, you know, right, right in the middle of the country, uh, doing business with our, our [00:23:00] fellow domestic partner here. And, uh, it’s, um, uh, I. You know, we, we, we would love to have those conversations. Um, and I think, you know, to, to, to toot Brad sworn a little bit that I, you know, we are over the moon about this opportunity at Tightline, but I, I, our heads spin when you think about all the other applications that you could apply this to.
I mean, we we’re a little bit of a one trick pony at our, at, at tight. We’re very, we’re very focused. Um, but, uh. Boy, um, you know, infusion, uh, in wind and, and everything else is, is. Unbelievable.
Allen Hall: Yeah. Brad, is your phone ringing off the hook and how do people get ahold of you?
Andrew Davis: I
Brad Schmidt: silenced it for the podcast, so not yet, but
Allen Hall: good move.
Brad Schmidt: Um, yeah, I mean, so avian.com Avian is a, you know, material science innovation company, global, global company, uh, headquartered near [00:24:00] Cleveland, Ohio. The, uh, our protrusion business called Glass Forms is in Birmingham, Alabama. Um, but you can navigate to our composites division, um, you know, at, within the website.
I’m also on LinkedIn and so, uh, connect to a lot of people through LinkedIn. But, uh, we’d love to talk about whether it’s, you know, protrusions aside from the carbon plank. We do, you know, and have pretty extensive pultrusion capability there in Alabama, or if it’s the resin chemistry itself and how it could be applied to other processes.
We’re, uh. Looking forward to having those conversations.
Allen Hall: Wow. This has been a tremendous discussion. I’ve learned a lot and protrusions are definitely the future. We just need to make them simpler, less labor intensive, and we need to move forward. So this is exciting. And Brad and Andrew, thank you so much for being on the podcast today.
Thank you for having us. Thank you. It’s [00:25:00] fun.
https://weatherguardwind.com/peel-ply-carbon-pultrusion/
Wind Industry Operations: In Wind’s Next Chapter, Operations take center stage
This exclusive article originally appeared in PES Wind 4 – 2025 with the title, Operations take center stage in wind’s next chapter. It was written by Allen Hall and other members of the WeatherGuard Lightning Tech team.
As aging fleets, shrinking margins, and new policies reshape the wind sector, wind energy operations are in the spotlight. The industry’s next chapter will be defined not by capacity growth, but by operational excellence, where integrated, predictive maintenance turns data into decisions and reliability into profit.
Wind farm operations are undergoing a fundamental transformation. After hosting hundreds of conversations on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, I’ve witnessed a clear pattern: the most successful operators are abandoning reactive maintenance in favor of integrated, predictive strategies. This shift isn’t just about adopting new technologies; it’s about fundamentally rethinking how we manage aging assets in an era of tightening margins and expanding responsibilities.
The evidence was overwhelming at this year’s SkySpecs Customer Forum, where representatives from over 75% of US installed wind capacity gathered to share experiences and strategies. The consensus was clear: those who integrate monitoring, inspection, and repair into a cohesive operational strategy are achieving dramatic improvements in reliability and profitability.
Takeaway: These options have been available to wind energy operations for years; now, adoption is critical.
Why traditional approaches to wind farm operations are failing
Today’s wind operators face an unprecedented convergence of challenges. Fleets installed during the 2010-2015 boom are aging in unexpected ways, revealing design vulnerabilities no one anticipated. Meanwhile, the support infrastructure is crumbling; spare parts have become scarce, OEM support is limited, and insurance companies are tightening coverage just when operators need them most.
The situation is particularly acute following recent policy changes. The One Big Beautiful Bill in the United States has fundamentally altered the economic landscape. PTC farming is no longer viable; turbines must run longer and more reliably than ever before. Engineering teams, already stretched thin, are being asked to manage not just wind assets but solar and battery storage as well. The old playbook simply doesn’t work anymore.
Consider the scope of just one challenge: polyester blade failures. During our podcast conversation with Edo Kuipers of We4Ce, we learned that an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 blades worldwide are experiencing root bushing issues. ‘After a while, blades are simply flying off,’ Kuipers explained. The financial impact of a single blade failure can exceed €300,000 when you factor in replacement costs, lost production, and crane mobilization. Yet innovative repair solutions, like the one developed by We4Ce and CNC Onsite, can address the same problem for €40,000 if caught early. This pattern repeats across every major component. Gearbox failures that once required complete replacement can now be predicted months in advance. Lightning damage that previously caused catastrophic failures can be prevented with inexpensive upgrades and real-time monitoring. All these solutions are based on the principle that predicted maintenance is better than an expensive surprise.
Seeing problems before they happeny, and potential risks
The transformation begins with visibility. Modern monitoring systems reveal problems that traditional methods miss entirely. Eric van Genuchten of Sensing360 shared an eye-opening statistic on our podcast: ‘In planetary gearbox failures, they get 90%, so there’s still 10% of failures they cannot detect.’ That missing 10% represents the catastrophic failures that destroy budgets and production targets. Advanced monitoring technologies are filling these gaps. Sensing360’s fiber optic sensors, for example, detect minute deformations in steel components, revealing load imbalances and fatigue progression invisible to traditional monitoring. ‘We integrate our sensors in steel and make rotating equipment smarter,’ van Genuchten explained.
Other companies are deploying acoustic systems to identify blade delamination, oil analysis for gearbox health, and electrical signature analysis for generator issues. Each technology adds a piece to the puzzle, but the real value comes from integration. The impact of load monitoring alone can be transformative.
As van Genuchten explained, ‘Twenty percent more loading on a gearbox or on a bearing is half of your life. The other way around, twenty percent less loading is double your life.’ With proper monitoring, operators can optimize load distribution across their fleet, extending component life while maximizing production.
But monitoring without action is just expensive data collection. The most successful operators are those who’ve learned to translate sensor data into operational decisions. This requires not just technology but organizational change, breaking down silos between monitoring, maintenance, and management teams.
In Wind Energy Operations, Early intervention makes the million-dollar difference
The economics of early intervention are compelling across every component type. The blade root bushing example from We4Ce illustrates this perfectly. With their solution, early detection means replacing just 24-30 bushings in about 24 hours of drilling work. Wait, and you’re looking at 60+ bushings and 60 hours of work. Early detection doesn’t just prevent catastrophic failure; it makes repairs faster, cheaper, and more reliable.
This principle extends throughout the turbine. Early-stage bearing damage can be addressed through targeted lubrication or minor adjustments. Incipient electrical issues can be resolved with cleaning or connection tightening. Small blade surface cracks can be repaired in a few hours before they propagate into structural damage requiring weeks of work.
Leading operators are implementing tiered response protocols based on monitoring data. Critical issues trigger immediate intervention. Developing problems are scheduled for the next maintenance window. Minor issues are monitored and addressed during routine service. This systematic approach reduces both emergency repairs and unnecessary maintenance, optimizing resource allocation across the fleet.
Turning information into action
While monitoring generates data, platforms like SkySpecs’ Horizon transform that data into operational intelligence. Josh Goryl, SkySpecs’ Chief Revenue Officer, explained their evolution at the recent Customer Forum: ‘I think where we can help our customers is getting all that data into one place.
The game-changer is integration across data types. The company is working to combine performance data with CMS data to provide valuable insights into turbine health. This approach has been informed by operators across the world, who’ve discovered that integrated platforms deliver insights that siloed data can’t.
The platform approach also addresses the reality of shrinking engineering teams managing expanding portfolios. As Goryl noted, many wind engineers are now responsible for solar and battery storage assets as well. One platform managing multiple technologies through a unified interface becomes essential for operational efficiency.
The Integration Imperative for Wind Farm Operations
The most successful operators aren’t just adopting individual technologies; they’re integrating monitoring, inspection, and repair into a seamless operational system. This integration operates at multiple levels.
At the technical level, data from various monitoring systems feeds into unified platforms that provide comprehensive asset visibility. These platforms don’t just display data; they analyze patterns, predict failures, and generate work orders.
At the organizational level, integration means breaking down barriers between departments. This cross-functional collaboration transforms O&M from a cost center into a value driver. Building your improvement roadmap For operators ready to enhance their O&M approach, the path forward involves several key steps:
Assessing the Current State of your Wind Energy Operations
Document your maintenance costs, failure rates, and downtime patterns. Identify which problems consume the most resources and which assets are most critical to your wind farm operations.
Start with targeted pilots Rather than attempting wholesale transformation, begin with focused initiatives targeting your biggest pain points. Whether it’s blade monitoring, gearbox sensors, or repair innovations, starting with your largest issue will help you see the biggest benefit.
• Invest in integration, not just technology: the most sophisticated monitoring system is worthless if its data isn’t acted upon. Ensure your organization has the processes and culture to transform data into decisions – this is the first step to profitability in your wind farm operations.
Build partnerships, not just contracts: look for technology providers and service companies willing to share knowledge, not just deliver services. The goal is building capability, not dependency.
• Measure and iterate: track the impact of each initiative on your key performance indicators. Use lessons learned to refine your approach and guide future investments.
The competitive advantage
The wind industry has reached an inflection point. With increasingly large and complex turbines, monitoring needs to adapt with it. The era of flying blind is over.
In an industry where margins continue to compress and competition intensifies, operational excellence has become a key differentiator. Those who master the integration of monitoring, inspection, and repair will thrive. Those who cling to reactive maintenance face escalating costs and declining competitiveness.
The technology exists. The business case is proven. The early adopters are already reaping the benefits. The question isn’t whether to transform your O&M approach, but how quickly you can adapt to this new reality. In the race to operational excellence, the winners will be those who act decisively to embrace the efficiency revolution reshaping wind operations.
Unless otherwise noted, images here are from We4C Rotorblade Specialist.
Contact us for help understanding your lightning damage, future risks, and how to get more uptime from your equipment.
Download the full article from PES Wind here
Find a practical guide to solving lightning problems and filing better insurance claims here
Wind Industry Operations: In Wind’s Next Chapter, Operations take center stage
Weather Guard Lightning Tech
BladeBUG Tackles Serial Blade Defects with Robotics
Chris Cieslak, CEO of BladeBug, joins the show to discuss how their walking robot is making ultrasonic blade inspections faster and more accessible. They cover new horizontal scanning capabilities for lay down yards, blade root inspections for bushing defects, and plans to expand into North America in 2026.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering Tomorrow.
Allen Hall: Chris, welcome back to the show.
Chris Cieslak: It’s great to be back. Thank you very much for having me on again.
Allen Hall: It’s great to see you in person, and a lot has been happening at Blade Bugs since the last time I saw Blade Bug in person. Yeah, the robot. It looks a lot different and it has really new capabilities.
Chris Cieslak: So we’ve continued to develop our ultrasonic, non-destructive testing capabilities of the blade bug robot.
Um, but what we’ve now added to its capabilities is to do horizontal blade scans as well. So we’re able to do blades that are in lay down yards or blades that have come down for inspections as well as up tower. So we can do up tower, down tower inspections. We’re trying to capture. I guess the opportunity to inspect blades after transportation when they get delivered to site, to look [00:01:00] for any transport damage or anything that might have been missed in the factory inspections.
And then we can do subsequent installation inspections as well to make sure there’s no mishandling damage on those blades. So yeah, we’ve been just refining what we can do with the NDT side of things and improving its capabilities
Joel Saxum: was that need driven from like market response and people say, Hey, we need, we need.
We like the blade blood product. We like what you’re doing, but we need it here. Or do you guys just say like, Hey, this is the next, this is the next thing we can do. Why not?
Chris Cieslak: It was very much market response. We had a lot of inquiries this year from, um, OEMs, blade manufacturers across the board with issues within their blades that need to be inspected on the ground, up the tap, any which way they can.
There there was no, um, rhyme or reason, which was better, but the fact that he wanted to improve the ability of it horizontally has led the. Sort of modifications that you’ve seen and now we’re doing like down tower, right? Blade scans. Yeah. A really fast breed. So
Joel Saxum: I think the, the important thing there is too is that because of the way the robot is built [00:02:00] now, when you see NDT in a factory, it’s this robot rolls along this perfectly flat concrete floor and it does this and it does that.
But the way the robot is built, if a blade is sitting in a chair trailing edge up, or if it’s flap wise, any which way the robot can adapt to, right? And the idea is. We, we looked at it today and kind of the new cage and the new things you have around it with all the different encoders and for the heads and everything is you can collect data however is needed.
If it’s rasterized, if there’s a vector, if there’s a line, if we go down a bond line, if we need to scan a two foot wide path down the middle of the top of the spa cap, we can do all those different things and all kinds of orientations. That’s a fantastic capability.
Chris Cieslak: Yeah, absolutely. And it, that’s again for the market needs.
So we are able to scan maybe a meter wide in one sort of cord wise. Pass of that probe whilst walking in the span-wise direction. So we’re able to do that raster scan at various spacing. So if you’ve got a defect that you wanna find that maximum 20 mil, we’ll just have a 20 mil step [00:03:00] size between each scan.
If you’ve got a bigger tolerance, we can have 50 mil, a hundred mil it, it’s so tuneable and it removes any of the variability that you get from a human to human operator doing that scanning. And this is all about. Repeatable, consistent high quality data that you can then use to make real informed decisions about the state of those blades and act upon it.
So this is not about, um, an alternative to humans. It’s just a better, it’s just an evolution of how humans do it. We can just do it really quick and it’s probably, we, we say it’s like six times faster than a human, but actually we’re 10 times faster. We don’t need to do any of the mapping out of the blade, but it’s all encoded all that data.
We know where the robot is as we walk. That’s all captured. And then you end up with really. Consistent data. It doesn’t matter who’s operating a robot, the robot will have those settings preset and you just walk down the blade, get that data, and then our subject matter experts, they’re offline, you know, they are in their offices, warm, cozy offices, reviewing data from multiple sources of robots.
And it’s about, you know, improving that [00:04:00] efficiency of getting that report out to the customer and letting ’em know what’s wrong with their blades, actually,
Allen Hall: because that’s always been the drawback of, with NDT. Is that I think the engineers have always wanted to go do it. There’s been crush core transportation damage, which is sometimes hard to see.
You can maybe see a little bit of a wobble on the blade service, but you’re not sure what’s underneath. Bond line’s always an issue for engineering, but the cost to take a person, fly them out to look at a spot on a blade is really expensive, especially someone who is qualified. Yeah, so the, the difference now with play bug is you can have the technology to do the scan.
Much faster and do a lot of blades, which is what the de market demand is right now to do a lot of blades simultaneously and get the same level of data by the review, by the same expert just sitting somewhere else.
Chris Cieslak: Absolutely.
Joel Saxum: I think that the quality of data is a, it’s something to touch on here because when you send someone out to the field, it’s like if, if, if I go, if I go to the wall here and you go to the wall here and we both take a paintbrush, we paint a little bit [00:05:00] different, you’re probably gonna be better.
You’re gonna be able to reach higher spots than I can.
Allen Hall: This is true.
Joel Saxum: That’s true. It’s the same thing with like an NDT process. Now you’re taking the variability of the technician out of it as well. So the data quality collection at the source, that’s what played bug ducts.
Allen Hall: Yeah,
Joel Saxum: that’s the robotic processes.
That is making sure that if I scan this, whatever it may be, LM 48.7 and I do another one and another one and another one, I’m gonna get a consistent set of quality data and then it’s goes to analysis. We can make real decisions off.
Allen Hall: Well, I, I think in today’s world now, especially with transportation damage and warranties, that they’re trying to pick up a lot of things at two years in that they could have picked up free installation.
Yeah. Or lifting of the blades. That world is changing very rapidly. I think a lot of operators are getting smarter about this, but they haven’t thought about where do we go find the tool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Allen Hall: And, and I know Joel knows that, Hey, it, it’s Chris at Blade Bug. You need to call him and get to the technology.
But I think for a lot of [00:06:00] operators around the world, they haven’t thought about the cost They’re paying the warranty costs, they’re paying the insurance costs they’re paying because they don’t have the set of data. And it’s not tremendously expensive to go do. But now the capability is here. What is the market saying?
Is it, is it coming back to you now and saying, okay, let’s go. We gotta, we gotta mobilize. We need 10 of these blade bugs out here to go, go take a scan. Where, where, where are we at today?
Chris Cieslak: We’ve hads. Validation this year that this is needed. And it’s a case of we just need to be around for when they come back round for that because the, the issues that we’re looking for, you know, it solves the problem of these new big 80 a hundred meter plus blades that have issues, which shouldn’t.
Frankly exist like process manufacturer issues, but they are there. They need to be investigated. If you’re an asset only, you wanna know that. Do I have a blade that’s likely to fail compared to one which is, which is okay? And sort of focus on that and not essentially remove any uncertainty or worry that you have about your assets.
’cause you can see other [00:07:00] turbine blades falling. Um, so we are trying to solve that problem. But at the same time, end of warranty claims, if you’re gonna be taken over these blades and doing the maintenance yourself, you wanna know that what you are being given. It hasn’t gotten any nasties lurking inside that’s gonna bite you.
Joel Saxum: Yeah.
Chris Cieslak: Very expensively in a few years down the line. And so you wanna be able to, you know, tick a box, go, actually these are fine. Well actually these are problems. I, you need to give me some money so I can perform remedial work on these blades. And then you end of life, you know, how hard have they lived?
Can you do an assessment to go, actually you can sweat these assets for longer. So we, we kind of see ourselves being, you know, useful right now for the new blades, but actually throughout the value chain of a life of a blade. People need to start seeing that NDT ultrasonic being one of them. We are working on other forms of NDT as well, but there are ways of using it to just really remove a lot of uncertainty and potential risk for that.
You’re gonna end up paying through the, you know, through the, the roof wall because you’ve underestimated something or you’ve missed something, which you could have captured with a, with a quick inspection.
Joel Saxum: To [00:08:00] me, NDT has been floating around there, but it just hasn’t been as accessible or easy. The knowledge hasn’t been there about it, but the what it can do for an operator.
In de-risking their fleet is amazing. They just need to understand it and know it. But you guys with the robotic technology to me, are bringing NDT to the masses
Chris Cieslak: Yeah.
Joel Saxum: In a way that hasn’t been able to be done, done before
Chris Cieslak: that. And that that’s, we, we are trying to really just be able to roll it out at a way that you’re not limited to those limited experts in the composite NDT world.
So we wanna work with them, with the C-N-C-C-I-C NDTs of this world because they are the expertise in composite. So being able to interpret those, those scams. Is not a quick thing to become proficient at. So we are like, okay, let’s work with these people, but let’s give them the best quality data, consistent data that we possibly can and let’s remove those barriers of those limited people so we can roll it out to the masses.
Yeah, and we are that sort of next level of information where it isn’t just seen as like a nice to have, it’s like an essential to have, but just how [00:09:00] we see it now. It’s not NDT is no longer like, it’s the last thing that we would look at. It should be just part of the drones. It should inspection, be part of the internal crawlers regimes.
Yeah, it’s just part of it. ’cause there isn’t one type of inspection that ticks all the boxes. There isn’t silver bullet of NDT. And so it’s just making sure that you use the right system for the right inspection type. And so it’s complementary to drones, it’s complimentary to the internal drones, uh, crawlers.
It’s just the next level to give you certainty. Remove any, you know, if you see something indicated on a a on a photograph. That doesn’t tell you the true picture of what’s going on with the structure. So this is really about, okay, I’ve got an indication of something there. Let’s find out what that really is.
And then with that information you can go, right, I know a repair schedule is gonna take this long. The downtime of that turbine’s gonna be this long and you can plan it in. ’cause everyone’s already got limited budgets, which I think why NDT hasn’t taken off as it should have done because nobody’s got money for more inspections.
Right. Even though there is a money saving to be had long term, everyone is fighting [00:10:00] fires and you know, they’ve really got a limited inspection budget. Drone prices or drone inspections have come down. It’s sort, sort of rise to the bottom. But with that next value add to really add certainty to what you’re trying to inspect without, you know, you go to do a day repair and it ends up being three months or something like, well
Allen Hall: that’s the lightning,
Joel Saxum: right?
Allen Hall: Yeah. Lightning is the, the one case where every time you start to scarf. The exterior of the blade, you’re not sure how deep that’s going and how expensive it is. Yeah, and it always amazes me when we talk to a customer and they’re started like, well, you know, it’s gonna be a foot wide scarf, and now we’re into 10 meters and now we’re on the inside.
Yeah. And the outside. Why did you not do an NDT? It seems like money well spent Yeah. To do, especially if you have a, a quantity of them. And I think the quantity is a key now because in the US there’s 75,000 turbines worldwide, several hundred thousand turbines. The number of turbines is there. The number of problems is there.
It makes more financial sense today than ever because drone [00:11:00]information has come down on cost. And the internal rovers though expensive has also come down on cost. NDT has also come down where it’s now available to the masses. Yeah. But it has been such a mental barrier. That barrier has to go away. If we’re going going to keep blades in operation for 25, 30 years, I
Joel Saxum: mean, we’re seeing no
Allen Hall: way you can do it
Joel Saxum: otherwise.
We’re seeing serial defects. But the only way that you can inspect and or control them is with NDT now.
Allen Hall: Sure.
Joel Saxum: And if we would’ve been on this years ago, we wouldn’t have so many, what is our term? Blade liberations liberating
Chris Cieslak: blades.
Joel Saxum: Right, right.
Allen Hall: What about blade route? Can the robot get around the blade route and see for the bushings and the insert issues?
Chris Cieslak: Yeah, so the robot can, we can walk circumferentially around that blade route and we can look for issues which are affecting thousands of blades. Especially in North America. Yeah.
Allen Hall: Oh yeah.
Chris Cieslak: So that is an area that is. You know, we are lucky that we’ve got, um, a warehouse full of blade samples or route down to tip, and we were able to sort of calibrate, verify, prove everything in our facility to [00:12:00] then take out to the field because that is just, you know, NDT of bushings is great, whether it’s ultrasonic or whether we’re using like CMS, uh, type systems as well.
But we can really just say, okay, this is the area where the problem is. This needs to be resolved. And then, you know, we go to some of the companies that can resolve those issues with it. And this is really about played by being part of a group of technologies working together to give overall solutions
Allen Hall: because the robot’s not that big.
It could be taken up tower relatively easily, put on the root of the blade, told to walk around it. You gotta scan now, you know. It’s a lot easier than trying to put a technician on ropes out there for sure.
Chris Cieslak: Yeah.
Allen Hall: And the speed up it.
Joel Saxum: So let’s talk about execution then for a second. When that goes to the field from you, someone says, Chris needs some help, what does it look like?
How does it work?
Chris Cieslak: Once we get a call out, um, we’ll do a site assessment. We’ve got all our rams, everything in place. You know, we’ve been on turbines. We know the process of getting out there. We’re all GWO qualified and go to site and do their work. Um, for us, we can [00:13:00] turn up on site, unload the van, the robot is on a blade in less than an hour.
Ready to inspect? Yep. Typically half an hour. You know, if we’ve been on that same turbine a number of times, it’s somewhere just like clockwork. You know, muscle memory comes in, you’ve got all those processes down, um, and then it’s just scanning. Our robot operator just presses a button and we just watch it perform scans.
And as I said, you know, we are not necessarily the NDT experts. We obviously are very mindful of NDT and know what scans look like. But if there’s any issues, we have a styling, we dial in remote to our supplement expert, they can actually remotely take control, change the settings, parameters.
Allen Hall: Wow.
Chris Cieslak: And so they’re virtually present and that’s one of the beauties, you know, you don’t need to have people on site.
You can have our general, um, robot techs to do the work, but you still have that comfort of knowing that the data is being overlooked if need be by those experts.
Joel Saxum: The next level, um, commercial evolution would be being able to lease the kit to someone and or have ISPs do it for [00:14:00] you guys kinda globally, or what is the thought
Chris Cieslak: there?
Absolutely. So. Yeah, so we to, to really roll this out, we just wanna have people operate in the robots as if it’s like a drone. So drone inspection companies are a classic company that we see perfectly aligned with. You’ve got the sky specs of this world, you know, you’ve got drone operator, they do a scan, they can find something, put the robot up there and get that next level of information always straight away and feed that into their systems to give that insight into that customer.
Um, you know, be it an OEM who’s got a small service team, they can all be trained up. You’ve got general turbine technicians. They’ve all got G We working at height. That’s all you need to operate the bay by road, but you don’t need to have the RAA level qualified people, which are in short supply anyway.
Let them do the jobs that we are not gonna solve. They can do the big repairs we are taking away, you know, another problem for them, but giving them insights that make their job easier and more successful by removing any of those surprises when they’re gonna do that work.
Allen Hall: So what’s the plans for 2026 then?
Chris Cieslak: 2026 for us is to pick up where 2025 should have ended. [00:15:00] So we were, we were meant to be in the States. Yeah. On some projects that got postponed until 26. So it’s really, for us North America is, um, what we’re really, as you said, there’s seven, 5,000 turbines there, but there’s also a lot of, um, turbines with known issues that we can help determine which blades are affected.
And that involves blades on the ground, that involves blades, uh, that are flying. So. For us, we wanna get out to the states as soon as possible, so we’re working with some of the OEMs and, and essentially some of the asset owners.
Allen Hall: Chris, it’s so great to meet you in person and talk about the latest that’s happening.
Thank you. With Blade Bug, if people need to get ahold of you or Blade Bug, how do they do that?
Chris Cieslak: I, I would say LinkedIn is probably the best place to find myself and also Blade Bug and contact us, um, through that.
Allen Hall: Alright, great. Thanks Chris for joining us and we will see you at the next. So hopefully in America, come to America sometime.
We’d love to see you there.
Chris Cieslak: Thank you very [00:16:00] much.
Hillsdale College is a rightwing Christian extremist organization that ostensibly honors the United States Constitution.
Here’s their quiz, which should be called the “Constitutional Trivia Quiz.”, whose purpose is obviously to convince Americans of their ignorance.
When I teach, I’m going for understanding of the topic, not the memorization of useless information.
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