Covestro has delivered its first commercial order of polyurethane raw materials for wind blades to China, the company announced in a press release. The blades, produced by Zhuzhou Times New Material Technology (TMT), have then been delivered to Envision, a global wind turbine technology company. They are scheduled to be installed in a wind farm in East China in July 2019.
“We are very excited to be working with Envision and TMT on this first sales order of PU wind blades in China,” said Ulrich Liman, Global Head of R&D, Business Unit Polyurethanes at Covestro in the release. “Polyurethane resin in the production of wind blades is a game-changing innovation delivered by Covestro teams around the world.”
Covestro delivered polyurethane resin to TMT for 18 polyurethane wind blades of 59.5-meter-length, also for the spar caps and shear webs. To ensure successful deployment, the Covestro wind power team produced a prototype of the wind blades which passed static and fatigue tests. The prototype was put into trial operation at a wind farm in central China in 2018.
Covestro’s polyurethane infusion resin was developed to help the wind power industry meet the demand for longer wind blade designs. Wind turbine rotor blades of this kind are typically made out of fiberglass-reinforced resin by applying vacuum infusion technology. Resin enables longer and stronger blades than traditional materials. There are also benefits for the production processes in the wind blade factory, for example, a faster curing process and better processing properties to deliver higher productivity levels.
“As an innovative material, polyurethane, compared to epoxy resin, has advantages in costs and in the production process. We have cooperated with Covestro since 2016, and now we have achieved continuous production,” said Zilu Liang, Deputy Chief Engineer, Wind Power Products at TMT,” in the press release. “We hope to further collaborate with Covestro to explore large-scale wind blades and wind blades completely made of polyurethane.”
