WINDRUSH LLC was established in order to market bolt and nut cleaning tools to the wind turbine industry. As is known in the industry it is very important to have clean threads when connecting a bolt and a nut to fasten any type of equipment together.
One of the most critical areas in THE WIND TURBINE industry is the foundation anchor bolts, which holds the tower to the foundation. In most wind turbine applications this consists of approximately 160 – 1 3/8” bolts. In new construction applications having a clean nut, bolt and mating surface will insure proper makeup and tension. In existing applications the need to clean the nuts, bolts and the base is necessary in order to either re-tension and/or to coat them with a non-corrosive coating.
The most time efficient and effective way to clean the anchor bolts is with the Shipman anchor bolt cleaning tools. 
The set consists of 3 tools, one tool to clean the bolt, one tool to clean the nut and another tool to clean the top of the nut and the base of the tower. This is accomplished by using a slow speed half-inch electric drill.
Estimated time to clean one bolt would be approximately 3 minutes or less depending on the condition of the fastener and the amount of rust present. On a tower with 160 bolts at 3 minutes per bolt the time to clean all of the bolts on the tower would be approximately 8 hours. Using a two or three person crew and working in succession can cut this time. Even at the 3 minutes per bolt a crew could clean the entire tower in an 8-hour period. This is far less time than the amount of time needed to clean by hand with a hand held wire brush or other methods and with much better results.
