We will present our technological breakthroughs in additive manufacturing and autonomous systems at the Aend Congress in Vitoria-Gasteiz

The manufacture of certain aircraft metal parts by Additive Manufacturing (AM) contributes to the reduction of pollutant emissions from the aeronautical sector with ultra-light and very complex shaped parts (bionic parts).

We develop new non-destructive testing strategies for in-service inspection of aeronautical parts manufactured by AM: we look for technological solutions taking into account the particularity of the internal structure of the material, the inaccessibility (assembled in the structure itself), and the lack of knowledge of the type of defects that appear during use.

We will present the automatic non-destructive evaluation of the remaining useful life of the main shafts of wind turbines: it explains the appearance and propagation of fatigue cracks in the main shafts of wind turbines and how these can lead to the breakage of the shaft and even the collapse of the rotor.

We bear in mind that manual ultrasonic inspection may be a solution, but it requires stopping the machine, and limits the use of the remaining useful life (RUL) of the shaft to 50%.

Autonomous evaluation system

We will exhibit the design, development and validation of an autonomous evaluation system of the RUL of the shaft based on ultrasounds. It is an alternative to the implementation of condition-based maintenance (CBM): a system installed in 10 wind turbines that offers better detection capabilities than manual inspection (which is not able to detect cracks when these are located in the compression zone of the shaft) and increases the use of shaft's shelf- life between 50% and 96%.

These breakthroughs will be presented by our colleagues Nekane Galarza and Benjamín Rubio at the AEND Congress, which will take place in Vitoria-Gasteiz from 12 to 14 June.