Wind turbine blade moulds

Fabrication techniques for wind turbine blade moulds... 

Loos (2011) reported that investigators from Bayer Material Science LLC, USA and Moulded Fibre Glass, Cleveland, USA have developed a prototype wind turbine blade 0.74 m long manufactured from polyurethane reinforced with carbon nanotubes (CNT PU). The researchers claim that the advanced material has a specific tensile strength five times and 60 times that of carbon fibre composite and aluminium, respectively, and is tougher than carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) but the excellent properties of these materials come with a price penalty. 

To illustrate the rapid increase in size of offshore wind turbine blades, LM Wind Power Group, Denmark, have recently developed a 73.5 metre blade manufactured in polymer composites which it was hoped would be installed at Alstom s prototype sites in Europe over the winter 2011-2012 the blades will travel at a speed of more than 320 km/h. A special prototype mould has been produced with a transparent surface that allows the full-scale manufacturing trials to be followed by visual inspection of the critical polyester infusion production (see Chapter 20, Section 20.4.2 for infusion techniques). When LM Wind Power began to produce wind turbine blades in 1978 the blades were 5 metres in length. 

Fabrication techniques for the manufacture of the moulds for wind turbine blades... 

A spar cap, web stiffeners and other details are installed in one of the halves of the blade mould and adhesive is applied to the exposed bonding edges of these units. The seeond half of the mould, containing the half-shell, is then turned over and lowered onto the first the adhesive is then allowed to enre, thus joining the two halves of the wind turbine blade together. The steel support frames are hinged together at one side to enable the mould to... 

Bechly ME, Clausen PD, Snaith H. Structural Design, Manufacture, and Testing of Resin Transfer Moulded Blades for Small Wind Turbines. Bury St Edmunds, UK Mechanical Engineering Publications, 1997. ISBN 1-86058-034-3. 

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