15 September 2009

Blade making process eyed at Iowa State wind energy lab

Wind turbine blades are truly under the gun. They are 40 to 50 meters long and 12,000 to 15,000 pounds. They need to be built within millimeters of specifications, and they have to be able to withstand 20 years of harsh field conditions. On top of that, the blades need to be able to handle speeds up to 200 miles per hour at the tip.

Blades currently in the field are solid and work fine, but as the country becomes more dependent on wind energy, the blades will need to get better and stronger.

That is where Iowa State University engineers come in, as they are working with researchers from TPI Composites, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company that operates a turbine blade factory in Newton; and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., to improve the process currently used to manufacture turbine blades.

The researchers’ work is part of the “Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Initiative,” a three-year, $6.3 million project. One third of the project’s funding is from the Iowa Power Fund, a state program to advance energy innovation and independence. TPI Composites and the U.S. Department of Energy are also providing equal shares of funding.

The grant will allow Iowa State to establish a Wind Energy Manufacturing Laboratory on campus.

The lab will feature the work of four faculty researchers: Matt Frank, Frank Peters, and John Jackman, associate professors of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, and Vinay Dayal, associate professor of aerospace engineering. The grant will also support the research of five graduate students and several undergraduates.

The researchers’ goal is to develop new, low-cost manufacturing systems that could improve the productivity of turbine blade factories by as much as 35%.

“The current manufacturing methods are very labor intensive,” Jackman said. “We need to improve throughput; we need to get more blades produced every week in order for it to be economical to continue to produce wind energy components in the United States.”

Peters said possible manufacturing improvements include developments in automation and quality control.

Peters said Iowa State’s new lab will start off working with smaller versions of the molds used to manufacture fiberglass turbine blades. The lab will allow the researchers to study blade manufacturing in a controlled setting while they look for ways to boost efficiency. Eventually, the lab could also study the manufacturing of wind towers, the nacelles that sit atop the towers, gearboxes, and other wind energy components.

Dayal, who is also a faculty associate with Iowa State’s Center for Nondestructive Evaluation, said the lab will also look at developing new ways for manufacturers to inspect blades without taking them apart. Faster, better inspections are another way to improve factory efficiency and blade reliability.

The researchers said Iowa State is in position to study wind energy manufacturing. Iowa, which has an installed wind energy capacity of 2,790 megawatts, is second in the country in wind power production. And Iowa is one of only two states home to manufacturing facilities for wind energy turbines, blades, and towers.

“This project is all about making wind energy a reality,” Frank said. “How do we make an impact on the U.S. energy profile? To do that, we have to develop manufacturing technologies that can economically make a lot of these components.”

For related information, go to www.isa.org/manufacturing_automation.