wind

GE Renewable Energy and partners complete successful trials in automated blade finishing programme

GE Renewable Energy, LM Wind Power and GE Research in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) launched the “Automated Blade Finishing” program in 2020, aiming to improve throughput, Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), and quality in wind turbine blade manufacturing.
GE Renewable Energy and partners complete successful trials in automated blade finishing programme
Courtesy of GE Renewable Energy

Blade finishing includes trimming excess material after molding and grinding blade surface to meet quality requirements. The programme’s vision is to leverage knowledge of advanced composite processing together with sensing, robotics and automation to develop low-cost solutions for wind blade finishing with potential to increase throughput by 30 percent and improve EHS in factories.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the team moved rapidly from concept to prototype boosted by the capabilities offered at NREL’s Composites Manufacturing Education and Technology (CoMET) facilities to perform quick proof of concept trials on blade sections.

The team was then able to collaborate with engineering, operations and EHS group at a LM Wind Power factory in Grand Forks, North Dakota to perform successful trials on an actual wind turbine blade in production. The process innovations were supplemented with agile program management to pivot as necessary and leverage digital tools to perform virtual validations and reviews with partners.

The programme is supported by funding from DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) and Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). AMO, through the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), awarded NREL $800,000. This was matched by $400,000 from OEDIT, with $600,000 in company matching contributions.

“GE Renewable Energy is excited about the outcome of pilot project and look forward to industrialising this technology” said Arvind Rangarajan, Technical Leader Automation for GE Renewable Energy, industry lead for the programme.

For additional information:

GE Renewable Energy

LM Wind Power

GE Research

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Baterías con premio en la gran feria europea del almacenamiento de energía
El jurado de la feria ees (la gran feria europea de las baterías y los sistemas acumuladores de energía) ya ha seleccionado los productos y soluciones innovadoras que aspiran, como finalistas, al gran premio ees 2021. Independientemente de cuál o cuáles sean las candidaturas ganadoras, la sola inclusión en este exquisito grupo VIP constituye todo un éxito para las empresas. A continuación, los diez finalistas 2021 de los ees Award (ees es una de las cuatro ferias que integran el gran evento anual europeo del sector de la energía, The smarter E).