Spider, a division of SafeWorks, LLC, recently designed, manufactured and rigged its largest 360° Blade Access Platform (BAP) to date.
The customer, Alstom, required access to the blades of its massive 3.0 MW prototype turbine at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Boulder, CO to conduct R&D on a new power performance improvement package. The scope of work required the platform to pass the max chord on the blades and have access to the blades’ root.
In less than four weeks—two weeks ahead of the anticipated production schedule—Spider designed, manufactured and delivered the custom 15 ft x 10 ft BAP—its largest to date—to Alstom.
Additionally, Spider technicians surveyed the turbine to develop a rigging plan that allowed the use of a four hoist platform by routing the rigging slings over the blades in a bunny ear position. With Spider on site daily to handle the rigging needs and provide immediate support throughout the three-week project, Alstom’s blade technicians were able to focus on their scope of work.
“In addition to providing a stable and safe working platform, Spider’s management of design, construction, rigging and on-site support allowed us to complete our project without any issues,” commented Jon Campbell, innovation program manager with Alstom.
