WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2016 - The Energy Department’s (DOE) Wind Program and Advanced
Manufacturing Office, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (ORNL), Sandia
National Laboratories (SNL) and others plan
to apply 3-D printing to the production of wind turbine blade molds.
Turbine blades are some of the most important and costly components
of a wind turbine, so reducing the cost of blade manufacturing will reduce the
costs of wind energy. Using 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing,
to produce the blade molds will reduce costs and time associated with
manufacturing, improve design flexibility and allow experimentation with new
capabilities, says DOE.
DOE’s ORNL and Cincinnati
Inc. will develop a new additive manufacturing tool, the Big Area Additive
Manufacturing (BAAM) machine, at Oak Ridge’s Manufacturing
Demonstration Facility.
The BAAM system, used to 3-D
print a replica Shelby Cobra, is 500 to 1,000 times faster and capable of
printing polymer components 10 times larger than today’s industrial additive
machines.
The key objectives of this project are to use the BAAM
machine to create molds for wind turbine systems and incorporate features and
capabilities not available through other methods. In addition to demonstrating
the additive manufacturing of wind turbine blade molds, other wind turbine
components could benefit from this technology, says DOE.
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