De-Risking Wind Turbine Manufacturing: Adaptive Innovations’ Proof-of-Concept Approach Saves Millions
BEYOND THE BUZZWORDS
Adaptive Innovations helps an automotive supplier deliver real value in high-volume manufacturing
Company
The company is a leading provider of sustainable energy solutions that accelerate the transition to clean power worldwide. This organization designs, constructs, installs and maintains both onshore and offshore wind turbines across numerous countries.
With an extensive portfolio of installed wind energy capacity and a comprehensive service offering—managing a significant fleet of operational turbines—the company utilizes advanced data analytics to help clients optimize wind energy performance.
Supported by a large, skilled workforce, the organization is committed to advancing a more sustainable and resilient energy future.
Challenge
The company wanted to automate a high-risk manufacturing step: the layup of fiberglass sheets used to construct massive wind turbine blades. The company wanted to determine if these complex assemblies could be built reliably using robotics. Adaptive Innovations recognized this project as potentially difficult to achieve and high-risk, leading them to recommend a proof-of-concept study.
Solution: Scaled Proof-of-Concept to Minimize Risk
Adaptive Innovations conducted a paid proof-of-concept study designed to de-risk the potential investment in full automation. Instead of building a multi-million-dollar system, Adaptive Innovations constructed a miniaturized, quarter-scale gantry system for testing.
Due to the immense size of the blades, Adaptive Innovations utilized an XYZ gantry robot, which is more crane-like, instead of a standard six-axis articulated arm robot. Adaptive Innovations reviewed several concepts and collaborated with the company to select the best two approaches for testing.
Adaptive Innovations customized the robotic end-of-arm tooling to handle the two materials:
- Needle Grippers picked the dry fiberglass pieces. These needle grippers were off-the-shelf items typically used in the textile industry.
- Vacuum Grippers picked up the resin-impregnated pieces.
Adaptive Innovations then tested the ability of this scaled-down system to discover if robots could pick and place the materials with no human involvement. Adaptive Innovations then documented the results, wrote a report and provided it to the customer.
Results: Millon-Dollar Misstep Avoided
The proof-of-concept study successfully demonstrated that robotic pick-and-place functionality worked reasonably well. However, two critical issues arose with the dry fiberglass material:
- Handling Risk: The needle grippers could not grab the edge of the dry, woven fiberglass without ripping the material apart. Consequently, the robot had to grab the piece around three inches inside the edge, which was not optimal.
- Wrinkles in Layup: By grabbing the pieces a few inches from the edge, the robot could not lay down the outer edges of the dry pieces perfectly flat every time, leading to the potential for wrinkles to appear in the final layup.
Since reasonably well is not good enough in manufacturing, and because the project would have required significant additional development without a guaranteed successful outcome, the company determined that the results were not sufficient to proceed.
The proof-of-concept study provided significant risk and cost avoidance for the manufacturer. By investing roughly $40,000 in the proof-of-concept, the company avoided the risk of building a full automation process that would have cost millions of dollars—and ultimately failed to meet requirements. Adaptive Innovations demonstrated the value of proving the feasibility of high-risk, high-cost robotic automation projects before making substantial capital investments.
Interested in learning more about our proof-of-concept approach? Contact us.