ON AN INTEGRATED PROCESS AND MACHINERY CONCEPT FOR ECONOMIC INDUSTRIALIZED PRODUCTION OF HIGHER QUALITY WIND TURBINE ROTOR BLADES

Fraunhofer IWES has investigated the production process of typical wind turbine rotor blades and developed a cost model to compare the current manual production process to new industrialized production concepts. The aim is identifying key methods to reduce blade cost: Development of costeffective rotor blade materials with similar properties, reduction of manual labor and increase of production reproducibility for robust quality, as quality costs pose a significant part of blade costs. Fraunhofer IWES will show methods to achieve cost-effective production and present industrialized fabric handling and finishing processes as they are key factors for blade quality. Different production strategies developed by using draping simulation and a simplified finite element analysis for the complete lay-up process result in an industrialized fabric placement process to address these quality and manufacturability aspects of large blades. In many production processes the final shape of the rotor blade is created by manual labor to reproducibly achieve the desired aerodynamics and surface quality. Fraunhofer IWES is developing a fast automated process for measuring, CNC-trimming and -grinding the blade to a shape with better aerodynamic and guaranteed structural performance by increased reproducibility. Fraunhofer IWES is currently building up a demo center for processes development and validation on the full scale blade level. Therefore Fraunhofer IWES has defined the specifications for an innovative easy-to-use CNC tool machine designed for industrialized rotor blade manufacturing, including an integrated CAD-CAMsolution.