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Reliability of structures and wind turbines is essential for wind farms to perform safely and successfully. A minor failure can cause unacceptable downtime and loss. Independent certification and inspection, provided by an independent third party, can improve trust in wind energy projects and secure quality and certainty throughout the intended lifetime.
To address this, SGS, the world's leading testing, inspection, verification and certification company, opens its Wind Energy Technology Center (WETC) - a blade testing facility for blades up to 70m length in Tianjin, China, by midyear 2010. In a presentation, Marcel Poodt, SGS Lead Engineer for the WETC, introduced the Wind Energy Services of SGS to participants of the China Wind Power Conference 2009. He also discussed the different blade testing possibilities and methods that SGS offers.
The SGS Wind Energy Technology Center in China mainly focuses on Rotor Blade Testing. As blade failures can have severe impact on safety, turbine downtime and public exposure, a thorough validation of the blades through full-scale testing is indispensable.
The SGS WETC provides a comprehensive range of full-scale blade testing services. Equipped with state-of-the-art technology for load application and blade measurements, the testing center can perform static and fatigue tests for various purposes: |