Barnhart was hired to do 19 turbine repowers at a wind farm in Kansas. One turbine rotor was problematic because it had seized in a position that would not allow for a standard rotor removal, as the tail blade was not in the six o’clock position.
Further review of the turbine found that a gearbox failure was the reason for the rotor seize. Barnhart provided an engineered solution to get the rotor removed in its current position along with equipment, manpower and tooling to complete the rotor removal.
Since the rotor would not move, the crew had to install blade toggles and an air hoist and then lance off the bolts to free it from the gearbox.
The crew then removed the rotor, used the air hoist to right the rotor in the correct SOP position and landed it successfully.
The crew then replaced the adapter ring, nacelle, hub and blades.