The weakest link in a steel structure are always the welded joints
By light weight design the plate thickness of the structure can be reduced and the steel structure of a wind turbine can be done considerably lighter. When reducing the plate thickness the stresses increase in the welded joints and lead to fracture, but with the Ultrasonic Peening treatment the fatigue strength of these areas is increased enough to make possible a material saving of at least 10 %. Hence light weight design made possible with Ultrasonic Peening will mean considerable savings in transport and energy costs of such structures from workshop to final site, and even more so if it is for offshore wind farms.
