3DX Blade Platform - Green Business Award

3DX Blade Platform

Sulzer & Schmid

How would you describe your solution?

Our autonomously flying drones photograph the entire surface of the up to 100m long rotor blades of wind turbines. Using AI, huge amounts of data are analysed and all damage is precisely documented.

The 3DX Blade Platform is a fully digital and integrated technology platform and enables our customers to analyse and evaluate the collected data in browser-based software. Our customers gain complete transparency regarding the condition of their plants. With the knowledge gained in this way, the maintenance of the plants can be optimised, and the efficiency increased. Sulzer Schmid is thus at the forefront of innovation.

Who are your customers?

Our first group of customers are wind turbine manufacturers such as Vestas. Secondly, we work with wind farm owners and operators. Our third customer segment is service providers who often offer repairs in addition to inspections.

What are the environmental benefits of your solution?

The transition to renewable energy is well underway, and Sulzer Schmid is part of the growing ecosystem that enables innovative services aimed at increasing the overall competitiveness of this industry sector.

Wind energy is a low-carbon energy source – when a wind turbine generates electricity, there are no carbon emissions.

Our technology helps wind energy to become increasingly competitive through optimised maintenance, contributing to the CO₂ emission savings achieved by making wind increasingly cheaper than CO₂-intensive energy sources.

How do you manage to exist on the market?

As a Swiss company, we benefit from the reputation of our economy in terms of quality and innovation. As we are a technology provider, the availability of highly talented developers, for example, is a decisive advantage of Switzerland as a location. Inspections are carried out by local partners from our global network.

Our most important markets are currently Scandinavia and the USA. However, we have already carried out inspections in many countries from Mexico to India and from New Zealand to Norway.