Published

8 months ago

May 15, 2025

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

IntoMachines Reinvents Bolt Tensioning for Wind Turbines

Listen to the entire interview on Spotify

With wind turbines growing larger and bolts getting bigger, the industry needs smarter ways to handle critical bolted connections. IntoMachines has developed unique tools that make bolt tensioning faster, safer, and much less expensive. – Allen Hall, CEO, Weather Guard Lightning Tech

As wind turbines grow taller and more powerful, the hardware that holds them together—those critical bolted joints—have also scaled up. As a result, the technicians and engineers who assemble, tension, and maintain those structural connections. Traditional bolt tensioning for wind turbines is physically grueling, time-consuming, and – most problematic from an operational standpoint – it’s often inconsistent. But a new wave of intelligent, automated tools from IntoMachines is providing significant improvements.

We invited IntoMachines co-founder Martin Kristelijn to explain how team is reshaping bolt tensioning by addressing its core challenges: efficiency, safety, and quality. This is a recap of our interview with him on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast,.

Bolt Tensioning for Wind Turbines – From Manual to Modern Tools

Today’s wind turbines contain more than 600 critical bolted connections, each requiring precise preload for long-term structural integrity. Manual hydraulic tensioning tools, while accurate, are heavy—some weighing over 50 kg (110 lbs)—and they must be moved from bolt to bolt, often under difficult field conditions.

Technicians report arm strain, repetitive stress injuries, and fatigue after handling thousands of bolts, leading to decreased productivity and increased risk of errors. And, it’s a real pain. As Kristelijin said – with what was a bit of understatement, “after a thousand bolts, your arm really starts to hurt.”

The Shift to Tensioning—and Why It Matters

Increasingly, bolt tensioning is preferred over torqueing. Tensioning directly applies axial load, bypassing the unpredictable friction coefficients associated with torque methods. “You apply hydraulic pressure, stretch the bolt, tighten the nut, and release,” Kristelijn explains. “It gives you exact preload every time.”

The downside? Speed and ergonomics. That’s where IntoMachines comes in.

The Solution: Smart, Weightless, and Fast

IntoMachines has engineered a Quantum Smart Tensioning System that integrates:

A motorized tensioner (developed with partner TensionPro)
A compact lift trolley that renders the tool weightless
User-friendly software that enables operation with minimal training

The trolley is designed for mobility inside turbine towers: it’s low-profile enough to slide under staircases, and rugged enough for harsh environments. A gas spring counterbalances the tool’s weight, eliminating manual lifting. IntoMachines offers a “try-out” of their tools on its website.

The result? Dramatically reduced technician fatigue and faster cycle times.

IntoMachines Reinvents Bolt Tensioning for Wind Turbines

Bolt Tensioning for Wind Turbines – Tools in Use Today

The Quantum system is already in use across Europe and Asia. With users reporting faster adjustments, less strain on workers, and high-quality, traceable documentation of each bolt tensioned, interest is growing and requests are coming in from US wind sites as well.

Looking Ahead: Autonomous Tensioning

IntoMachines isn’t stopping there. Their next-gen innovation is a robotic crawler capable of autonomously tensioning blade bolts in nacelle production facilities. The same motorized Quantum tensioner is modular enough to integrate into the robot, creating a seamless upgrade path from manual to autonomous operation.

Importantly, the system is built with simplicity and field robustness in mind. As Weather Guard Lightning Tech CCO Joel Saxum notes, “You don’t need a software engineer on site. Technicians can be up and running with a 15-minute intro.”

Learn More About How IntoMachines Improves Bolt Tensioning for Wind Turbines

If you’re responsible for wind turbine assembly or maintenance, IntoMachines’ system could save you thousands of labor hours and significantly improve work conditions.

Visit intomachines.com
Contact: sales@intomachines.com
Follow: IntoMachines on LinkedIn

Listen to the entire interview on Spotify

Subscribe to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast here. Over a million listeners count on Uptime to keep up with the Wind Energy Industry!

https://weatherguardwind.com/intomachines-reinvents-bolt-tensioning-for-wind-turbines/

Renewable Energy

Sticking with Science

Published

11 hours ago

January 12, 2026

Alice Rush

It appears that this is precisely what happened to Dr. Fauci during the COVID-19 pandemic. He ran into the perfect storm of anti-science crackpots, and the far right-wing, often counterfactual media, e.g., Fox News and Newsmax.

There are still people who believe that, after 50 years of service, working under five different presidents, his statements about the disease were aimed at crippling the U.S. economy.

Sticking with Science

Renewable Energy

On the Passing of Grateful Dead Co-founder Bob Weir

Published

15 hours ago

January 12, 2026

Alice Rush

A reader notes: I’d like to think virtually no musician has lived a better life than Bob Weir. More than 60 years touring and doing what he loved. We should all strive for that much joy in our lives.

This rings completely true in the world of rock/blues music.

And in classical music, the situation is notable worse, as many of our heroes like Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin lived brief and/or disease-ridden lives.

There were exceptions, however.

Gioacchino Rossini (pictured), known mostly for his operas, loved fine food and drink and lived to be 76 years old.

Louie Moreau Gottschalk, the first American musical celebrity, who was, I’m told, as popular in the mid-19th Century as Elvis Presley was in the mid-20th, traveled the world, playing his intricate piano pieces, and “hanging out” (shall we say) with beautiful ladies.

On the Passing of Grateful Dead Co-founder Bob Weir

Renewable Energy

Ørsted Loses €1.5M Daily, Equinor Sets Empire Wind Deadline

Published

20 hours ago

January 12, 2026

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

Ørsted Loses €1.5M Daily, Equinor Sets Empire Wind Deadline

Allen covers the deepening US offshore wind crisis as Ørsted reports losing €1.5 million daily on American projects and Equinor sets a January 16 deadline to resume or cancel Empire Wind. Meanwhile, onshore wind thrives with Invenergy’s 2GW Oklahoma project and AES repowering Buffalo Gap in Texas with Vestas turbines.

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!

Danish energy giant Ørsted said it is losing one and a half million euros on US offshore projects. Every. Single. Day. Norwegian company Equinor has drawn a line in the sand. January sixteenth. Resume construction on Empire Wind… or cancel the whole thing. 3.5 billion euros invested. Sixty percent complete. And now… a deadline. As we all know, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued stop-work orders on December twenty-second. Just before Christmas. A gift nobody wanted. Ørsted has filed complaints. First on Revolution Wind. Then Sunrise Wind. Court documents reveal the Danish company stands to lose more than 5 billion euros if forced to abandon both projects. Meanwhile… President Trump signed an executive order withdrawing America from sixty-six international organizations. Many focused on energy cooperation. On climate. Ole Rydahl Svensson of Green Power Denmark calls it a sad development. But not surprising. Ole says America is abdicating from renewable energy… in favor of energy forms of the past. The empty seats will be filled quickly, he predicts. By China. By Europe. I personally get asked every week by my European friends, is US onshore wind also under attack?? I think the answer is not yet. While offshore wind projects sit paralyzed by federal orders… Out in the Oklahoma Panhandle… something different is happening. Invenergy is planning a three hundred wind turbine wind farm. Two gigawatts of power. Enough electricity for eight hundred fifty thousand American homes. According to recent filings the turbines will be supplied by GE Vernova. Invenergy already operates wind farms in ten Oklahoma counties. They’ve already built the largest single-phase wind park in North America outside of Oklahoma City. Four billion dollars of investment. Five hundred construction jobs. Thirty permanent positions. No stop-work orders. No court battles. No international incidents. And down near Abilene Texas, AES is repowering its Buffalo Gap wind farm – the existing 282 turbines will be replaced with 117 new Vestas V150 4.5MW turbines. $94 million in tax revenue for local counties and schools over its lifetime. It will also create 300 jobs during peak construction and 17 long-term operations jobs. So while the US oceans remain off-limits… While billions evaporate in legal fees and idle vessels… The wind industry continues to move forward. And that’s the state of the wind industry for January 12, 2026. Join us for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast tomorrow.