<
https://www.fastcompany.com/90932286/this-startup-is-using-robots-to-3d-print-giant-wind-turbine-blades>
or
https://archive.md/lFcHq
"One of the challenges of building a new wind farm is transportation: If a wind
turbine blade is 200 feet long, or even longer, it can’t easily travel down
highways. In fact, moving a wind turbine can take a year of planning. The video
below shows part of the terrifying two-week journey of a single blade up a
mountain in China.
Moment wind turbine blade is carried up steep mountain slope in China
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXA_uJLTGGg
The difficulty of delivery pushes up the cost of wind power. But one startup
has designed a system to use 3D printing and robotics to manufacture wind
turbines in the place where they will be used. “We want to be able to
manufacture the foundation, the tower, and the blades all on-site, which is a
radical shift from how it’s done today,” says Amolak Badesha, CEO of the
startup, called Orbital Composites.
https://www.orbitalcomposites.com/
The company developed new tech that allows it to print composite materials at
high speeds. Right now, the wind industry uses labor-intensive manufacturing
techniques. “Most people don’t know this, but we actually have zero wind blade
factories left in the U.S.,” Badesha says. “We used to have more, but they’ve
all been offshored because of how manual this process is.” (To qualify for
incentives for domestic manufacturing, he says, some companies bring the blades
to the U.S. only for sanding and painting.)
Orbital already uses its technology to print drones and satellite parts. To
make blades for a wind turbine, it will 3D-print a giant mold, and then print
the blade inside the mold. All of the equipment can be delivered to a site in
shipping containers."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-breastfeeding-trachoma-iraq-golden-lion-tamarin-brazil/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
