Trust your LEP Performance? Tested, documented and verified
Around wind turbines, promises are plentiful. Every component, every solution, comes with assurances of longevity and performance. But for asset owners and OEMs, who deal with consequences of underperformance, promises are not enough.
At Polytech, we try always to provide our customers with the latest knowledge about our LEP products. With this in mind we have fully adopted DNV´s RP-0573 and shared all details afterwards with DNV to receive the “Approval” with this we can share with our customers trustworthy performance data.
The reliability of ELLE® products is built on three pillars: a decade of proven field performance, thousands of hours of rigorous lab testing, and validation from the industry's leading authorities.
A Foundation Forged in the Field
Our Unmatched Track Record: The ELLE products have protected turbine blades for over a decade.
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80,000+ Blades in Operation: This vast number of installations provides an unparalleled feedback loop, informing every aspect of our material science and design.
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10+ Years of Proven Field Performance: Many of our initial installations are still performing flawlessly in the harshest offshore environments on the planet, the ultimate proof of durability.
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The Global Offshore Standard: ELLE Shells are the trusted solution for over 70% of all offshore turbines globally, a testament to their reliability where failure is not an option.
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ELLE Onshore has in 2024 alone been installed at 100+ wind farms across the world.
This decade of data gives us an unprecedented understanding of how LEP materials behave over time. It is this foundation that makes our lab testing so precise and our performance promises so certain.
Promise 1: It Will Withstand a Lifetime of Hostile Weather.
A turbine blade lives in a world of extremes. The elements are relentless.
Our Proof: We expose ELLE® products to a condensed lifetime of environmental torture in our advanced test chambers, with protocols in accordance with ISO 12944-9 running for 25-weeks.
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Neutral salt spray approximately 1800 hours.
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Light exposure: approximately 900 hours using UVA-340 or approximately 1800 hours using Xenon arc with daylight.
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Low-temperature exposure down to −20°C. approximately 600 hours.
The Result: You can be confident ELLE® products will maintain material properties, backed by both lab data and a decade of real-world exposure.
Promise 2: It Will Resist Relentless Erosion.
The leading edge of a blade faces a constant high-velocity assault from rain, hail, and sand. This is the primary driver of erosion and harm you blades constantly.
Our Proof: We replicate these hyper-velocity impacts in our state-of-the-art rain erosion test facility, with protocols designed in accordance with DNV-RP-0171.
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Rain erosion tested on a rotating arm to establish VN curves with mean droplet diameter around 2 mm; HALT/ALT specimens with speeds ranging from 160 to 80 m/s.
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Statistical treatment to obtain characteristic 95/95 VN curves per DNV-RP-0573 Sec. 3.4.4, then durability calculated by the Springer-based damage accumulation method (DNV-RP-0573 Sec. 3.2–3.4).
The Result: ELLE® products act as an impenetrable shield, preserving the blade's aerodynamic profile with a methodology validated by the industry’s foremost authorities.
Promise 3: It Will Not Peel, Lift, or Detach.
A protective solution is only as good as its bond.
Our Proof: We conduct exhaustive tensile, and peel-force tests across a wide matrix of industry-standard blade coatings.
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Adhesion characterized via ASTM D3330 peel tests with failure modes and the effect of long-term degradation.
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Delamination due to blade bending verified per DNV-RP-0573 Sec. 5: fatigue tests to 2·10^6 cycles at R = 0.1 at room temperature and 250,000 cycles at −30°C, plus post-fatigue tensile tests at both room temperature and −30°C.
The Result: ELLE® products form a permanent, integrated bond with the blade.
Certified and Approved: The Industry's Stamp of Approval
Field data and lab testing are our internal pillars of proof. They are supported by external validation from the industry's most respected bodies.
DNV-Verified: Our ELLE® technology platform has been independently verified by DNV.
