Blade Manufacturing QC: Inline NDT at the Moulding Station

TL;DR Blade manufacturing QC puts the volumetric scan at the moulding station, so a defect is a station repair rather than weeks of production time, and the takt time is met by a gantry scanning at 500 mm/s rather than by sampling the joint.

Scan speed

500 mm/s

Positional accuracy

plus or minus 0.1 mm

Cap scan window

within 30 min of infusion

Rework instruction

under 60 seconds to the operator

Cap width per pass

600 mm in one pass

Channels

up to 256

Timing is the whole argument for inline inspection. A defect caught at the moulding station is a repair, and the same defect found after demoulding is weeks of production time, so the scan is placed where the fix is still cheap. That is a scheduling decision as much as a technical one, and it is why the spar cap is scanned within 30 minutes of infusion rather than whenever a slot is free.

The speed figures make the placement possible without adding takt time. A 600 mm spar cap falls to one longitudinal pass at 500 mm/s on a 64-element linear array, where a single-element probe would need 20 parallel passes and about five times the time. On a 256-channel system the PAUT and TOFD channels run together, so porosity, delamination and dry laminate are resolved in the same pass that keeps pace with the mould.

The other half of inline QC is the route back to the operator. Results are pushed to the MES so a rework instruction reaches the operator in under 60 seconds, which means the fix happens inside the same station visit rather than on a queue. That loop, scan to disposition in under a minute, is what makes 100 % coverage affordable at production speed, and it is what turns a QC gate into part of the line.

Every figure on this page traces to our own product and field documentation, so a claim here can be checked against the datasheet it came from.

Options at a glance

Stage	What is scanned	Why here
Post-infusion	spar cap within 30 min	defect is a station repair
Pre-bonding	bond-line preparation surface	joint still open, re-prep not re-bond
Post-assembly	completed shell before finishing	one record per blade serial

How to work through this topic

01 Fix the acceptance threshold. Start from the threshold the zone carries, not from the method you happen to own. IEC 61400-5 Section 11 asks for volumetric detection of indications 6 mm and larger in the laminate plane, and DNV-ST-0126 tightens the leading edge to 3 mm, so the threshold is set before the probe is chosen.
02 Read the geometry off the drawing. Measure the thickness and the curvature the probe has to travel. A spar cap up to 80 mm of unidirectional laminate and a root transition of changing radius are two different scan problems, and the radius decides how the array is coupled.
03 Choose the modality pair. Pick modules by defect geometry, not by habit. PAUT images planar separations that lie parallel to the plies, TOFD catches volumetric clusters whatever their orientation, and running both on a 256-channel system puts the two mechanisms in one pass.
04 Automate the scan path. Put the probe on an encoder-driven carriage and let the path, not the technician, set coverage. A 600 mm spar cap falls to one longitudinal pass at 500 mm/s on a linear array, where a single-element probe needs 20 parallel passes and runs about five times longer.
05 Lock the evidence chain. Write the coverage map, the daily calibration and the indication log to the blade serial while the scan is running. It is the difference between a 3-day type-certification audit and a 3-hour document review, and it is what ISO 9712 qualification is there to sign.

Detailed pages in this topic

Frequently Asked Questions

Why put NDT inside the production line?

Because a defect found at the station is a repair and the same defect found after demoulding is weeks of production time. Placing the scan inline is what keeps the fix cheap, and it is a timing decision more than a technical one.

Does inline scanning slow the line down?

No. A 600 mm cap is one longitudinal pass at 500 mm/s on a 64-element array, where a single-element probe needs 20 passes and about five times the time, so 100 % coverage fits inside the takt rather than beside it.

How fast does a rework instruction arrive?

In under 60 seconds. Results go to the MES and the instruction reaches the operator while the blade is still in the station, so the fix happens in the same visit rather than on a queue behind the blade.

Which stages carry a scan?

Post-infusion on the spar cap, pre-bonding on the preparation surface, and post-assembly on the completed shell. Each stage catches the defect while the fix is still in its cheapest form, and together they form one record per blade serial.