The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 16, 2017
Filed:
Sep. 09, 2014
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Ulrich Werner Neumann, Simpsonville, SC (US);
Brent Hamilton Holloway, Simpsonville, SC (US);
Gaylon Mitchell Pfeiffer, Tampa, FL (US);
Michael R. Johnson, Campton, NH (US);
Forrest Christopher Hach, Lake Benton, MN (US);
Kevin Costain, Baltic, SD (US);
Stephanie Willman, Greenville, SC (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for lifting and/or removing a rotor blade to and from a wind turbine. In one embodiment, the system includes an up-tower pulley mounted on an up-tower location of the wind turbine, first and second ground winches, a pulley cable from the first ground winch over the up-tower pulley and attached to the rotor blade, a guide line attached between an up-tower location of the wind turbine and the second ground winch, a guide pulley mounted on the guide line, and a guide cable from the guide line over the guide pulley to the rotor blade. Thus, the guide pulley is configured to move along the guide line during lifting and removing of the rotor blade so that the guide cable can control an orientation of the rotor blade relative to the tower during lifting and removing of the rotor blade.