Wind turbine blades, fabrication

Epoxy adhesives play an important role in the fabrication, performance and durability of wind turbine blades. 

Not included in Figure 4.2 are thermoset plastics that are extensively used as glass-fiber- or carbon-fiber-filled materials in building and transportation. For instance, watercraft or aircraft structures and in wind turbine blades in the energy sector are fabricated out of lightweight composites or thermoset plastics filled with reinforcing fillers. Thermoset plastics cannot be melted and reshaped into... 

Fabrication techniques for wind turbine blade moulds... 

Abstract This chapter will introduce advances in properties, production and manufacturing techniques of the advanced polymer/fibre composite materials that are utilised in the manufacture of machines that produce sustainable energy. Chapter 19 discussed the various methods of transferring wind, tidal, wave and solar energies into electrical power and this chapter will show how advanced composites are utilised in these various machines. Furthermore, it will suggest methods for the repair, maintenance and recycling of advanced polymer composite wind turbine blades. Finally, the future trends of sustainable energy systems and the role that polymers and polymer/fibre composites will have in their manufacture/fabrication will be evaluated. 

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

German wind turbine company REpower Systems AG has joined forces with Denmark s LM Glasfiber to develop an RP blade for REpower s SM turbine, a 5 MW machine with a rotor diameter of over 125 m. It will be the largest blade in the world in serial production. The prototype should be completed by the end of 2003. From 1978 to 2001 LM fabricated over 60,000 RP blades of smaller sizes for wind farms.48 49... 

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