Vestas Wind Systems A/s

Carsten Jasper

Adrian Botwright

Troels Vahle

Kristoffer Lolk Fredriksen

Martin Damm

Peter Frans Thomsen

Michael Kastrup

Lucia Quintana

Martin Dam

Lucía Quintana

A transport frame having a longitudinal, lateral and upright extent for receiving a tip portion of a wind turbine blade is disclosed. The frame is stackable with identical frames and has a tip saddle assembly including a saddle with a support surface shaped to receive a blade tip, and a clamping mechanism having a hinged clamping arm operable between an open position and a closed position, the clamping arm, when open, allowing a blade tip to be lowered into the saddle, and when closed, securely restraining the blade tip against upward movement. The tip saddle assembly further includes a preventer serving to maintain the clamping arm in the closed position over a blade. A method of using the transport frame to clamp a wind turbine blade is also disclosed.

Transport frame for a wind turbine blade

Transport frame pair configured for transporting a wind turbine blade, said frame pair comprising a tip frame and a root frame, each said tip and root frame being stackable with identical frames for blade transport or storage, each one of said tip and root frame comprising four upright frame struts which together define a generally cuboid internal space having a longitudinal extent between two pairs of said upright struts; said tip frame comprising a tip saddle assembly within said generally cuboid internal space, and said root frame comprising a root saddle assembly within said generally cuboid internal space, and wherein said root frame is configured to prohibit a translation movement of said root saddle assembly in a longitudinal direction of a blade supported in a root saddle of said root saddle assembly; and wherein said tip frame allows a translation movement of said tip saddle assembly in a longitudinal direction of a blade supported in a tip saddle of said tip saddle assembly. The longitudinal extent of the root frame may be more than twenty percent greater than the longitudinal extent of the tip frame.

Transport frames for a wind turbine blade

Growing community of inventors

Aarhus N, Denmark

Carsten Jasper