What generally causes the damage you’re called in to fix?
A lot of blade damage occurs as a result of production flaws. It could be human error, which can cause structural weaknesses, such as a resin pool (the composite lacks fibres), air void (pocket of air in the blade) or something even harder to spot when building a sixty-meter or longer piece of complex composite material. On older blades, we often see bad design that stresses certain parts, or causes cracks or debonding in places where different materials meet.
Transport damage is the cause of a large amount of blade damage. Blades are often loaded and unloaded on multiple forms of transport, travelling on narrow twisting roads full of trees. Massive installation cranes working under time pressure, usually in windy conditions, can also cause damage.
Damage to blades in operation are usually caused by the environment: wind erosion, lightning strikes, hail, UV, sand carried by wind, low temperatures. Damage might even be caused by all kinds of unexpected reasons like hunters’ shooting contests or heavy tools left inside blades by accident.