UMaine awarded $2.8M to accelerate 3D wind blade development

Courtesy / University of Maine Seen here is a rendering of a 3D printed wind blade mold segment, superimposed on a background photo of the world's largest polymer 3D printer at the University of Maine with the center's executive director, Habib Dagher.

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By Staff

The University of Maine has been awarded $2.8 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a rapid, low-cost additive manufacturing — 3D printing — solution for making large, segmented molds for wind-turbine blades.

In addition to receiving the federal funds, the UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center will collaborate on a $4 million award to Oak Ridge National Laboratory to apply robotic deposition of continuous reinforcing fibers in wind blades.

Developing large wind blades is usually a costly and time-intensive process. Molds and tooling for large blades can cost upward of $10 million. The time to market of 16 to 20 months stifles innovation in this growing market, UMaine said in a news release.

“Very large wind blade molds 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,” Habib Dagher, the center’s executive director, said in the release. “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 six months. Molds produced using these materials can be ground up and reused in other molds, making them a more sustainable solution.”

UMaine is a developer of cellulose nanofiber technology, including development of nano- and micro-cellulose reinforced thermoplastic composites. The new bio-based materials promise mechanical properties similar to aluminum at lower fabricated costs.

Carbon-fiber reinforced 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 the lab. Controlling mold surface temperatures is critically important to the process, and the new lab technology allows robotic deposit of the heating elements, reducing mold fabrication time and cost.

“Oak Ridge National Laboratory will apply expertise in additive manufacturing, carbon fiber technology and materials science to advance the use of 3D printing in wind energy applications,” said the lab’s Xin Sun, interim associate laboratory director for energy science and technology.

TPI Composites and Siemens Gamesa are partnering with the composites center on the project. A successful demonstration will put both Siemens Gamesa and TPI in a position to transition the additive manufacturing solution into practice.

Siemens Gamesa is the world’s leading supplier of offshore wind turbines and TPI produces approximately 18% of the world’s wind blades. Ingersoll Machine Tools, the 3D printer manufacturer, and Techmer PM, the cellulosic-thermoplastic feedstock compounder, also are on the team, providing the ability to scale up both equipment and feedstock production.

Researchers at the UMaine Composites Center on the project include Dagher, James Anderson, John Arimond and Doug Gardner.

About the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center

The University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center is a world leader in composite materials R&D. Founded through the National Science Foundation in 1996, it is housed in a 100,000-square-foot laboratory with 260 employees. The center has received top international awards for its research, and has over 500 clients and partners worldwide. A number of private Maine businesses have spun off from the center’s research.

The center pioneered the development of floating offshore wind turbines by designing and deploying the first grid-connected offshore wind turbine in the U.S. in 2013. The center houses the Alfond W2 (Wind-Wave) Ocean Engineering Laboratory, a unique facility with a high-accuracy wind generator over a multi-directional wave basin, as well as the Offshore Wind Laboratory, the second-largest wind blade testing facility in the U.S. In 2019, the center commissioned the largest polymer 3D printer in the world. It won Guinness World Records for 3Dirigo, the largest 3D printed boat in the world, a 25-foot-long 5,000-pound patrol vessel which was printed in 72 hours.