Public Funding for DFS Composites Limited

All of the commercially available wind turbine blade designs from the largest wind turbine OEM's use a shell constructed from two separate halves, with one or more shear webs positioned between the two halves to form an "I-beam" structure and provide the required mechanical strength. During the blade assembly process, the shear web(s) are transported to the blade halves using a large, product specific lifting device, known as a "Shear Web Positioner". This lifting device is used to ensure the shear webs location inside the blade is within the ±2mm positioning tolerance as the position of the webs are critical to the performance of the blade. They can cost anywhere in the range of £400,000 to £1,400,000, contain over 30 tonnes of steel and cannot be easily recycled or reused. As offshore wind energy becomes critical to meeting the targets stipulated in the Paris Agreement, DFS have identified a market trend for increasing blade length, especially for the 15MW designs expected to be installed over the next decade. This project will explore multiple methods of future-proofing the shear web positioning process for these large offshore wind blade designs.

The wind industry has been drastically affected by the COVID-19 epidemic and as a direct consequence, wind energy installations in Europe for 2020 are expected to be 30% down compared to industry forecasts \[Wind Europe-Newsroom COVID-19\]. Government restrictions placed on the factories that manufacture the turbine blades have limited capacity due to closures and social distancing. To maintain global installed capacity targets and production schedules, a noticeable increase in production capacity of each facility is required. The project will focus on development of innovative ways to locate the mould halves in a stack-able configuration, with one mould half always remaining above the other, minimising the space required for each mould. Research is required to identify a method of supporting the top half sufficiently, to allow workers to laminate the composites in both mould halves simultaneously, even while the top half is still above the other. This disruptive solution will revolutionise the wind turbine manufacturing process. The aim of this project is to enable the renewable energy sector to meet the sustainable energy targets stipulated in The Paris Agreement (2015) by reducing the footprint of the moulds (targeting a 50% reduction). This will in turn increase the production capacity of the turbine blade manufacturing facilities by 100%, subsequently allowing more moulds to be installed in the same given footprint. Consideration of system re-usability will also be considered in the research phase of the project aiming to promote circular economy by keeping materials in use, designing out waste and pollution and promoting regenerating natural systems. This novel technology addresses a number of problems with current solutions: 1\. Footprint for required installation 2\. Re-usability of mould actuation system for future mould designs 3\. Suitability for larger offshore wind turbine blades in excess of 100m Grant funding will provide the means to develop the first working prototype of a footprint optimised mould actuation system in the world.