BladeBUG & FORCE Technology: Robot Driven Ultrasound Inspections

In this episode, we dive into the world of ultrasonic inspections—a crucial need for damaged wind turbine blades. But here's the twist: turbines have been set up in some seriously remote and offshore locations. Join us as we uncover the exciting partnership between Chris Cieslak of BladeBUG and Lars Boye Vesth of FORCE Technology. They've joined forces to conquer the challenges of performing ultrasonic inspections in these hard-to-reach spots. Get ready for a fascinating discussion that reveals their innovative approach to this demanding task! BladeBug - https://www.bladebug.co.ukFORCE Technology - https://forcetechnology.comPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update 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 Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  BladeBUG FORCE Interview Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall host of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast and we have a great discussion today with BladeBUG and FORCE Technology from the show floor of global offshore wind in London, England, where it's also about 30 degrees Celsius and Sunny, very unusual day there. BladeBUG is a UK-based company that develops robotic devices for the inspection repair of wind turbine blades. The company's flashing product BladeBUG robot is a self-powered autonomous robot that can climb and inspect wind turbine blades without the need for human intervention. BladeBUG was founded by our guest today, Chris Cieslak. And Chris, welcome to the program. Chris Cieslak: Thank you for having me back again. Yeah, pleasure to be here. Allen Hall: Thank you. And we have Lars Vesth with FORCE Technology with us also. FORCE Technology is based in Denmark and also Office of Variety of consulting and engineering services in several industries, including the renewable energy industry. Course technology is also a leader in ultrasonic inspections and inspection devices. Lars, welcome to the program. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. So you have a really interesting partnership going and, and Chris, why don't you start off and describe what the, this partnership is.  Chris Cieslak: So this is, this is a continuation of, of BladeBUG's robotic platform integrating, like really high quality ultra non-destructive testing systems. And we have collaborated, we've teamed up with, with FORCE Technology. To use their equipment, which is used for the last 20 years on inspecting wind turbines in factories and mount a sort of reduced version of that within the BladeBUG robot to enable the same inspections to be formed out in the field. Yeah,  Allen Hall: and that's remarkable because as we all know, there's a lot of damage blazes out there, and one of the most difficult tasks is to understand how deep that damage is and how large this damage is. Paint and coatings cover up most of the damage, so a lot of times. When technicians get out in the field and they start looking around at blade damage, they realize this is a lot worse than I thought. And that's where FORCE Technology comes in because FORCE Technology can see, see the things that the human eye can't see. And, and Lars your technology and your sonic knowledge is remarkable. Just I've, I've heard about your company for quite a while. I just, I've been researching it more recently. You want to describe what ultrasonic technology you guys possess right now? As  Lars Boye Vesth: Chris said, we have been working with the industry for many years. We have been supplying equipment for manufacturing quality con...