Manufacturing Efficiencies To In Wind Turbine Blades

Manufacturing efficiencies in wind turbine blades

17-Jul-17

Demand for wind blades continues to grow and top manufacturers and turbine makers will be talking about their latest developments at the conference on Wind Turbine Blade Manufacture 2017, in Düsseldorf, Germany. The conference will kick off as usual with a market analysis by Cristina de Santos, Energy & Infrastructure Unit Manager with AMI Consulting.
Cost of energy continues to be a critical factor in the wind turbine blades industry. Delegates attending Applied Market Information's Wind Turbine Blade Manufacture 2017 conference will have the chance to listen to analysis undertaken by the European Commission, Joint Research Centre about the economics of wind energy. Polytech, from Denmark, will also provide the delegates with solutions on how to reduce cost of energy while increasing blade quality.
Longer blades increase rotor swept area and consequently, optimizes power output per turbine. This continue to be key for decreasing cost of energy production. However, it brings design and manufacturing challenges to the blade industry. SE Blades with leading blade manufacturing capacities in India and subsidiary of Suzlon Energy, a major wind turbine producer, will share with the audience their view on blade design challenges. A presentation from Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, world leader wind power provider, will focus on the technology and infrastructure challenges that blades longer than 100 meters would bring. Service requirements need to be always kept in mind so Nordex, will not only identify those requirements but also analyze how they drive blade manufacturing and design.

But cost of energy cannot be decreased through longer blades alone. Improving the service life of blades is also essential. Protection against blade erosion, covered extensively in the last edition of this conference, is key for achieving this. This year, Nordex will be presenting what could be the next level LEP system. Icing protection is fundamental in blade reliability and LM Wind Power, leading blade manufacturer in the world and recently acquired by General Electric, will discuss the functional requirements to either remove or prevent ice formation, compare them both and examine the tradeoffs between performance and costs. Research & development efforts focused on gaining a better understanding of ageing and fatigue of composite structures is essential to improvements. The latest findings and developments in this area will be presented by Professor Brøndsted of DTU Wind Energy, pivotal member of the wind turbine blades R&D community, Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES) and IMA Materialforschung und Anwendungstechnik. Enhanced learning about fracture mechanics and its use as a design tool for adhesive connections in wind turbine blades will also be explored by DNV GL.

Blade manufacturing, the key focus of AMI’s conference, is also fundamental when analyzing the cost of energy. Increased production efficiencies are key and we will have three outstanding presentations covering this from different angles. Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES) will share with the audience what should be the next step to industrialisation in this industry. Carbon Rotec Composite Technology together with Synthesites SNC will share advanced process control that allow achieving higher productivity and quality control. Sandia National Labs will share innovative methods to achieve better and more efficient production cycles and in-service inspection.

Automation has played a significant role in the industrialisation of other markets and it is starting to make an impact on blade production too. PH Windsolutions recently acquired by Gurit, will show delegates how to manufacture bigger blades through automation. German Aerospace Centre will speak again this year after a very well received presentation in AMI’s 2016 conference. This year, in addition to introducing delegates to an innovative type of blade with geometrical twist-bend-coupling and sharing the single steps of construction the presentation will highlight methods and technologies to be used during and after the manufacturing process.
Innovation is required across the whole supply chain and a good example of this is TPI Composites’ recent development and fabrication of 3D printed tooling for this industry. Materials being key in blade manufacturing, material innovation is also essential. The use of thermoplastic materials to manufacture wind turbine blades has been discussed for a while now so Arkema will present together with the Korean Hayang University the enhancements achieved on fatigue life using vacuum infused thermoplastic composites at the 2017 edition of AMI’s conference. With the purpose of manufacturing longer blades, blade segmentation has also been the focus of innovation efforts in this industry. Nabrawind Technologies, will present its solution for modular blade manufacturing.
The conference will finalise with a presentation from ETA Blades, an Italian blade manufacturer. They will share their experience on re-blading, which is one of the opportunities for driving demand for blade manufacturing around the world.