Manufacture of wind Turbines using Carbon Fibre Prepreg

Transcription

1 Manufacture of wind Turbines using Carbon Fibre Prepreg Damian Bannister CTO, Gurit (UK) Ltd Moscow November 1 st, 2013 Wind Energy Tooling Transportation Marine

2 Gurit UNRIVALLED TECHNOLOGY FOR TAREGT MARKETS Products FST Prepregs Structural Prepregs Structural Cores Adhesives and Resins Auto Body Panels Engineering and Proto. Swiss Company: Founded in 1835 (Textiles) Listed on SWX 2012 Turnover $350 M Pure Play Advanced Composites Specialist Footprint: Europe, USA, China Tooling Target Markets Slide 2

3 Prepreg Fibres and Fabrics: Resin Film(s): Processing Prepreg Uni-directional Carbon Glass Fabrics Woven Fabrics (0/90) Multi-axial fabrics Triaxial (0/45/-45) Quadriaxial (0/45/-45/90) Epoxy resin Semi-solid at RT Heated to 50 o C Mixed with catalyst Filmed to weight % on a silicon paper Hot melt Combine film with fibre or fabric between papers Heat resin to o C Compress with nip rollers and impregnate fibres Cool Remove paper Add PE protective films Rolls lm mm wide Low tack, Drape Storage -18 o C Shelf life: 3-24 months Outlife 3 days 6 months Slide 3

4 Blade sub-components Structural Spar Cap: 50 plies of 1kg/m 3 UD carbon prepreg 50m Blade has 1000 kg carbon prepreg Load bearing component Lightweight Sandwich Shell: Glass/Epoxy with Balsa, PVC, SAN, or PET 50m blade shell weight approximately 5,000 kg Stiff panels transfer load from wind into spar Root Joint: Glass/Epoxy solid laminate 70-85mm thick to enable bolt fixing Typically weight kg Transfers blade loads into the hub Gelcoat/Paint and Adhesives Epoxy gelcoats and PU paint used for surfacing kg of structural adhesive Lightening protection system also required

5 Blade manufacturing process (1) 1. Mould released and coated with Gelcoat 2. Shell sandwich laminates created using glass fabrics, epoxy resin and core materials. 3. Pre-cured spar caps are added 4. Shells are cured using o C 5. Shear webs are positioned with jigs 6. Adhesive applied to shear webs and leading and trailing edges 7. Moulds are closed and heat applied to 70 o C for 6-10hrs 8. Blade leading and trailing edges finished, light abrasion, 9. Blade painted Total cycle time is 18-24hrs

6 Market Demand for Composites 44 GW installed in % outside Europe/US China significant boom now ended Avg. turbine 1.8 MW Number of blades 73,000 per annum Approximately 10 % carbon design Approx. weight of a blade 9,000 kg Composite annual volume 657k tonnes Carbon prepreg annual volume 7.3k tonnes Glass Commodity Epoxy Commodity Core Commodity Adhesive Commodity Carbon Price pressure to be competitive with heavier glass blades Total cost of ownership key Slide 6

7 Why Carbon? (1) Longer, Lighter Blades The tendency in the turbine industry is to supply longer blades on existing turbine designs to suit light wind sites Offshore turbines are multi-megawatt requiring larger blades that can withstand higher loading Lighter Blades Improved Aerodynamics and Power Curve Lower loads on turbine Lower loads on tower Lower foundation costs Lower installation costs Slide 7

8 Blade Mass (kg) Wind Energy Materials Why Carbon? (2) Fatigue becomes a major issue Can design a fatter blade but less efficient aerodynamically As blades get larger more and more designs are moving to Carbon spar caps 6000 Aero Compromise Natural Frequency Tip Deflection Glass High Modulus Glass Carbon Blade Length (metres) Slide 8

9 Making Carbon Prepreg Competitive Cost of Use Solution Fibre cost Use Heavy Tow 48-60k Optimise properties with resin systems and high prepreg quality Compression strength and tensile modulus key Prepregging Cost Run heavy weight 600 gsm at high line speed and high tape width 1500mm Factory temperature control Develop materials that can be used up to 35 o C Develop materials that enable low void contents Deposition Rate Fast precise deposition required Low CAPEX key Storage and Shipping Develop materials that have long shelf life up to 40 o C Slide 9

10 Question? Slide 10