The University of Maine’s (UMaine) Advanced Structures and Composites Center has been awarded $2,800,000 from the US Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to develop a 3D printing solution to for fabricating wind blade moulds.
It has been charged with finding a rapid, low-cost additive manufacturing solution to produce large, segmented wind blade moulds.
In addition, the UMaine Composites Center will collaborate on a $4m award to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to apply robotic deposition of continuous reinforcing fibres in wind blades.
Currently, innovation in large wind blade technology is a costly and time-intensive process.
Moulds and tooling for large blades can cost upward of $10m. The time to market of 16–20 months can stifle innovation in this growing market, UMaine said.
UMaine executive director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Habib Dagher said: “Very large wind blade moulds will be printed on the world’s largest polymer 3D printer located at the UMaine Composites Center using recyclable bio-based materials reinforced with wood.
“By combining cutting-edge 3D printing manufacturing with bio-based feedstocks, our team estimates that new blade development costs can be reduced by 25% to 50% and accelerated by at least 6 months.
“Moulds produced using these materials can be ground up and reused in other molds, making them a more sustainable solution.”
UMaine is a world leader in cellulose nanofibre (CNF) technology, including development of nano- and micro-cellulose reinforced thermoplastic composites.
These new bio-based materials promise mechanical properties similar to aluminium at lower fabricated costs, the researchers said.
Carbon fibre reinforced ABS thermoplastic feedstocks, which are widely used in large scale 3D printing, cost more than $5 per pound.
By incorporating bio-based materials derived from wood, the cost of the feedstock can be reduced to less than $2 per pound.
The molds will incorporate 3D printed heating elements using a new technology developed at ORNL.
Control of mould surface temperatures is a critical manufacturing requirement.
The new ORNL technology enables robotic deposition of heating elements, reducing mould fabrication time and cost.
The outcome of the proposed research is to transform mould production as a key enabler for more rapid and more cost-effective large wind turbine blade development.
TPI Composites and Siemens Gamesa (SGRE) are partnering with the UMaine Composites Center on the project.
A successful demonstration will put both SGRE and TPI in a position to transition the additive manufacturing solution into practice.