#940: BugBand

The legs of offshore platforms have loose fitting ‘garter’ type rings fitted so that the rise and fall of the water level will allow them to rub away marine life which clings to structures within the wave zone.

Today’s invention is analogous, but it addresses instead the problem of dead insects on the blades of a wind turbine. In some places this can reduce efficiency of the blades significantly.

Each blade would have a loose bracelet which would fall to the end of a blade (being retained by a lug on the end) and back to the hub as the turbine rotated. The movement of the bracelet would be enough to scrape off most of the insect remains -without having to stop the mechanism for cleaning or lower its operating efficiency.