The production of rotor blades for offshore wind turbines is very time-consuming – and consequently very expensive, too. Three years ago a project called “mapretec” was started to research possibilities for streamlining the production process and subsequently cut costs. Now the Institute for Integrated Product Development in the University of Bremen’s Faculty of Production Engineering has been awarded an international prize for its research results: the JEC Innovation Award sponsored by the Global-Composite-Gemeinschaft. The prize, which will be presented in Paris this March, is shared between the Bremen institute and the SAERTEX corporation in Saerbeck and AREVA Blades, Stade.

Laminating large fiberglass and carbon fiber mats without wrinkles

The blades of modern offshore wind turbines are over 60 meters in length. They are made of fiber reinforced plastics. Expansive fiber glass and carbon fiber sheets – known as mats – measuring up to 130 square meters have to be laminated together, taking care not to cause any wrinkling. They are then shaped before being bonded with synthetic resin. Great care has to be taken when laminating the mats, and the task has to be completed as quickly as possible. Until now, this part of the processing had to be done mainly by hand and it is very work-intensive, i.e. time-consuming.

This will be easier in future when this work could be done by a combination of automated cutting and laminating, and preforming technology. Furthermore, creating the geometries of the spatially complex blades is made easier by means of computer-aided engineering. First, computerized sensors control precisely how the mats should be cut to size. After this step, the newly developed machine lays up the mats to the desired shape (preforming).

It was this system that won over the JEC jurors, and the new development took the prize in the category “wind energy”. Altogether, there were prizewinners in 15 different categories. The only other German prizewinners are Porsche, in the category automobile production, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology in the category aviation technology.

You can find out more about the research partners and the jurors in the press release here

BU: Loading rotor blades for shipping to the alpha ventus offshore wind farm.