Patent Application: US-37410707-A

Abstract:
a process for the manufacture of a composite article is described wherein the process comprises the steps of providing on a tool a fibrous material having associated therewith in at least one region thereof an in - situ polymerisable non - fibrous form of a thermoplastic material ; applying heat and a vacuum to said material ; and additionally drawing into the fibrous material , from a source external to the tool , additional thermoplastic pre - polymer material . the process described is particularly useful for the manufacture of a large composite structure such as thermoplastic composite wind turbine blade , for example .

Description:
the invention provides a single cure cycle , ( one - shot ) process for the manufacture of large structural composite elements . the invention is described with reference to the manufacture of a large wind turbine blade or a part thereof but it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to wind turbine blades and other articles constructed of composite may be made . the advantage of the process described herein is that the most suitable processes are used for the most suitable areas of the blade . rather than face the problem of liquid infusing very long , very large area , thin sections of fibre preform with a hot activated 2 - part system cbt melt , the material is placed locally between the fibre layer using the one - part cbt system , when the blade is being laid up at room temperature . in the thicker sections , rather than face the possibility of insufficient polymerisation in the laminate interiors and the high debulk problems , the reinforcement is laid up without any cbt powder and the two - part melt system is used to infiltrate these areas once the mould and fibre preform has reached processing temperature . the manufacture of cbt composite components with complex shapes can present problems for either the known vartm ( vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding ) process or the prepreg layup process . it can happen that some sections of the component can be amenable to the vartm process while other sections are amenable to the placement of the one - part cbt within the reinforcement during the layup process . the present invention addresses this issue by providing a method in which both processes are used concurrently to manufacture such a component in one processing cycle . the main obstacle to the economic manufacturing of a large thermoplastic composite wind turbine blade is that the flow viscosity of most thermoplastic polymers is very high , in comparison to the viscosity of uncured thermoset resins . thermoplastic polymers with desirable mechanical properties such as polybutylene terephthalate ( pbt ), polyethylene terephthalate ( pet ), polyamide - 6 ( pa - 6 ), polyamide - 12 ( pa - 12 ), polyamide - 6 , 6 ( pa - 6 , 6 ) and also polyether etherketone ( peek ), polyetherketoneketone ( pekk ) and polyphenylene sulphide ( pps ), have flow viscosities several orders of magnitude larger than uncured epoxy , polyester or vinylester resins . in general , a flow viscosity of 1 . 0 pa · sec or lower is required in order for a polymer resin to easily infiltrate a fibre reinforcement preform under vacuum pressure only . the difficulty of infiltration is directly related to the resulting fibre volume fraction of the laminate . thus it is more difficult to process a 60 % fibre volume fraction laminate than a 50 % volume fraction laminate . it is more advantageous to use a polymer resin with a flow viscosity as low as possible , as this aids the infiltration , as well as flow over large distances and results generally in less voids and air inclusions in the final laminate . thermoplastic polymers such as those listed above can have melt viscosities between 100 pa · sec and 500 pa · sec or even higher , depending on the temperature that the material is being processed at . in contrast , uncured thermoset resins such as polyester and epoxy have flow viscosities less than 1 . 0 pa · sec , which is sufficient to allow the infiltration of fibre preforms under vacuum pressure , as would be necessary for large wind turbine blades . of course , it is well - known to use higher consolidation pressures by means of a mechanical press or high - pressure autoclave , which enables the efficient manufacturing of thermoplastic composite laminates . this approach is not , however , practical for the production of large wind turbine blades , due to the large dimensions of the structures involved , and the consequent capital cost of presses or autoclaves of this size . an important consideration in the manufacture of large wind turbine blades from thermoplastic composites is the higher temperatures at which most useful thermoplastic polymers must be processed . the most desirable polymers , in terms of mechanical performance and reasonable cost are the semi - crystalline engineering thermoplastics such as pbt , pet , pa - 6 , pa - 12 and pa - 6 , 6 . however , the melt temperatures of all of these thermoplastic polymers are above 220 ° c ., which means that the composites would have to be processed above this temperature . this contrasts with the existing processing temperatures for polyester and vinylester resins of up to 100 ° c ., and of epoxy resins of up to 150 ° c . developments in both large high temperature tooling and thermoplastic processing systems have enabled the present invention to address the possibility of manufacturing a thermoplastic composite wind turbine blade . the most important development has been in the area of in - situ polymerised thermoplastic polymers . these are largely semi - crystalline engineering thermoplastics such as pa - 6 , pa - 12 and pbt . technologies have been developed which enables the use of the monomer , or oligomer precursors of these polymers in the moulding of composite structures , rather than using the polymer form itself . the main advantage of this approach is that the viscosity of the pre - polymer ( either monomer or oligomer ) material is sufficiently low to enable relatively easy infiltration of composite preforms with high fibre volume fractions . once the pre - polymer material has been infiltrated into the fibre preform , a combination of heat and time allows a polymerisation reaction to take place in the composite , which yields a fully - polymerised semi - crystalline polymer composite . a catalyst system is required in order to initiate and drive this polymerisation reaction . the catalyst can be added directly before the injection of the pre - polymer , or in one case , can be pre - mixed with the pre - polymer and then stored in solid form . the pre - polymers used in the present invention suitably comprise in - situ polymerised materials . one such in - situ polymerised material is a form of pa - 12 , which is available in an activated monomer form known as anionically polymerised lactam - 12 ( aplc - 12 ). this material is available from ems - chemie ag in switzerland . the monomer material is known as lactam - 12 or laurolactam , the pre - polymer of pa - 12 . the system involves the heating of the pre - polymer under certain conditions , the addition of a suitable catalyst , and the infiltration of the pre - activated melt into suitable fibre reinforcements . at certain mould temperature and pressure , it is possible to cause the pre - polymer to polymerise to form pa - 12 . cooling of the mould then causes crystallisation and solidification of the pa - 12 composite with carbon fibre reinforcement . the details of this process have been widely published 1 , 2 , 3 . percentages of lactam - 6 or caprolactam , which is the pre - polymer of pa - 6 , varying from 0 % to 100 % with the anionic catalyst of ems - chemie , can also be used to produce an in - situ polymerised pa - 6 / pa - 12 polymer alloy , and to produce carbon fibre composites using this process 4 . it is also known to use the activation system known as nyrim ( nylon reinforced injection moulding ) from bruegemann gmbh , to anionically polymerise caprolactam melts and to produce glass fibre pa - 6 composites 5 , 6 . however , the preferred material system for the present invention is the cbt material system . this material is an activated macrocyclic polyester oligomer , which when polymerised forms a pbt polymer , described in many patents of cyclics corporation , including u . s . pat . no . 6 , 369 , 157 b1 . the cbt system has a useful feature in that it can be caused to polymerise at temperatures around 190 to 210 ° c . once it polymerises , however , it is then a polymer melt of pbt , whose melting temperature is somewhat higher , at approximately 240 ° c . this causes the polymer melt to start to crystallise at the lower temperature , and to eventually solidify . the advantage here is that the component may be removed from the mould at an elevated temperature , as high as 150 ° c . cbt can be processed in two main ways . the first is known as the two - part system , and involves heating the oligomer to temperatures in the range of 150 to 160 ° c ., at which point the oligomer melts to form a low viscosity liquid . at this point a suitable catalyst may be added ( such as titanate , for example ) which initiates the polymerisation reaction . the activated melt has a viscosity profile which increases with time and temperature , but which in any case can remain below the indicative figure of 1 . 0 pa · sec for sufficient time to enable the melt to be infiltrated into a fibre reinforcement preform in a heated mould in a satisfactory manner . the process of infiltration of the activated pre - polymer melt into the preform is essentially no different from the liquid resin infusion processes described herein for uncured thermoset resins . once infiltration has been completely achieved , a combination of temperature and time is required to cause the material to polymerise in - situ . a major advantage of the cbt macrocylic polyester oligomer system is that the polymerisation reaction is not exothermic . this means that it is possible to process thick sections of fibre reinforced laminates without any problems of heat build - up in the interiors of the laminates , as are experienced in processing of all thermoset structures . this presents a major commercial advantage in that it should be possible to process large wind turbine blades from cbt in a fraction of the time currently required at present to process thermoset blades , and without encountering any of the exotherm - related problems described above . glass reinforced cbt laminates over 100 mm thick have been produced in cycle times less than 3 hours . similarly , 100 mm thick laminates with large diameter metal bolt inserts have been manufactured successfully . the second way to process the macrocyclic polyester oligomer material is described in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 369 , 157 b1 , in which the catalyst is combined in an earlier step to form a single - part solid system , which can be provided in pellet or powder form . the advantage of this one - part system is that there is no need to carry out the mixing step described above in the two - part system . furthermore , the powder or pellets can be distributed at room temperature on top of , or between layers of the fibre reinforcement prior to the composite laminate being heated up . alternatively , a preliminary step can be used to manufacture a type of pre - impregnated cbt fabric or tape in which the one - part system has been attached to the fibres by means of heating and cooling , without allowing sufficient time for the polymerisation reaction to occur . the resulting layup of fibre and one - part cbt material is simply vacuum - bagged on a suitable tool and heated . the one - part system will melt at temperatures in the region of 180 to 200 ° c ., and will have a low enough viscosity which enables it to fully impregnate the fibre reinforcement , before the polymerisation reaction starts . the main advantage of the one - part cbt system for the present invention is that the one - part material can be pre - placed or pre - deposited on the fibre reinforcement in the form of pellets , powder granules or as a pre - impregnated fabric or tape . this means that it is not necessary to use liquid resin infusion techniques to cause large volumes of pre - polymer melt to infiltrate fibre preforms of long lengths and large areas , as would be required in a large wind turbine blade . a large wind turbine blade of between 40 and 50 metres length can weigh between 10 and 15 tonnes in total , with approximately one third of this weight being made up by the polymer matrix material or resin . the practical and economic problems of melting up to 5 tonnes or more of an activated thermoplastic pre - polymer material and causing it to flow through a fibre preform which could have an area of several hundred square metres are not insignificant . the problem is made more difficult as the activated pre - polymer material must be kept above a certain temperature during infiltration , but must be infiltrated fully into the preform within the allowable process window of the material . this process window is the time at which the viscosity remains low enough to flow through a fibre preform . the ongoing polymerisation reaction will at some stage cause the viscosity to rise above the upper limit for infiltration of the preform , and the filling of the preform needs to be finished before then . there are some problems with the processing of the one - part cbt system , however , the most significant of which has been reported by winckler 7 . in heating the one part system from room temperature to its processing temperature of 190 to 210 ° c ., it is necessary to achieve a certain minimum heating rate throughout the material . there are competing mechanisms of polymerisation and crystallisation in the material . too low a heating rate in the one - part system can cause the material to crystallise as a macrocyclic polyester oligomer , in which case the polymerisation process will be impeded . this will lead to poor mechanical properties in the material . winckler estimates that a minimum heating rate of 10 ° c . per minute in the temperature range between 120 and 190 ° c . is the minimum heating rate which is need to fully polymerise the material . for example , if a thick section , for example , a section of about 100 mm , of alternating layers of one - part cbt powder and glass fibre reinforcement is heated from both surfaces , it is possible that the interior of the layup may not heat up at sufficient rates in order to fully polymerise the cbt 8 . this is a possibility where very thick sections of a wind turbine blade , for example the hub section which could be between 100 mm and 150 mm in thickness , are being processed using the one - part cbt system . it will be appreciated by the skilled person that a second problem with processing thick sections of composite laminates using the one - part cbt system is that there is significant thickness reduction involved once the powder or pellets of the cbt system melt and start to infiltrate the fibre preforms . this can be particularly problematic if processing a circular section which is composed of a thick laminate , such as that in the circular hub section of a large wind turbine blade . it may be extremely difficult to lay up sufficient fibre in the circular section , and to maintain accurate fibre orientation as the thick circular section debulks . in the development of this invention , two types of interface between a vartm ( vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding ) section and a prepreg section were examined . as shown in fig1 , the first was an overlap joint ( a ) and the second was an interleaved joint ( b ). the first step in the integration of these two processes into a single process cycle was to lay both the prepreg material and the fibre preform onto the appropriate locations on the tool . the tool was heated and when processing temperature was reached , the cbt resin was infused into the dry fibre preform . when infusion was complete , the part was held at temperatures between 190 ° c . and 210 ° c . to facilitate polymerisation of the cbt resin . after cooling the integrated part was removed from the tool . the ease of handling of the one - part cbt system , and the use of the hybrid processing route involving the integration of the prepreg process and vartm process gives sufficient flexibility to allow the manufacturing of the entire wind turbine blade in a single component and a single operation . as will be described in detail below , the low viscosity of the cbt system enables processing steps to be taken to mould entire blade sections in a single shot . the very low , almost water - like viscosity of the cbt system also means that higher than normal fibre volume fractions can be reliably achieved using only vacuum pressure for flow and consolidation . glass fibre laminates of thicknesses of up to 100 mm , with fibre volume fractions of 60 % have been repeatedly produced showing extremely low void contents in the resulting laminate . this means that it may be possible to increase the percentage of glass fibre being used in wind turbine blades , giving higher stiffness and strength , and thereby enabling the construction of lighter weight turbine blades . the following example demonstrates the manufacture of a section of a cbt thermoplastic composite wind turbine blade . it will be appreciated that the process described can also be used to manufacture a whole thermoplastic composite wind turbine blade in a one - shot process . the skilled person will appreciate that blades or blade sections of various sizes could be manufactured using the process according to the invention . to demonstrate the process of manufacturing a glass reinforced cbt wind turbine blade , a 4 metre long centre section of a 12 . 6 m blade was produced . the centre section was manufactured on a high temperature composite tool . this demonstration shows the process that can be used for the entire blade , of any size in length . the following stages were involved in the production of the blade section : fig2 shows a cross section of a blade section obtainable by the process according to the invention . as shown in fig2 , the basic design of the blade section 1 comprises two ( concave ) shell portions or halves 2 which overfit with the concave surfaces facing each other . a structural support comprising a box beam spar comprising two spar webs 3 is provided in the cavity 4 between the two fitted together halves 2 . the box beam spar has a double z - web construction . in the embodiment shown , the skins 5 of blade halves 2 comprise a lay - up of glass fibre and cbt powder . the ± 45 ° fibre - reinforced skins 5 take the torsion loads . the blade section is provided with spar caps 6 . the spar caps 6 carry the flap - wise bending loads , i . e . the loads in bending towards the tower . foam core 7 is provided between the layers of the skins 5 to increase resistance to buckling . the spar caps are made from a thick unidirectional fibre laminate comprising alternating layers of glass fibre and cbt powder , whereas the spar webs 3 are made from +/− 45 ° fibre skins on a foam core . unidirectional plies 8 are also employed at the trailing edge 9 of the blade to further increase edgewise bending stiffness . the thickness of lay - up and foam are greater towards the root end and reduce along the length of the blade . the blade 1 is also provided with a hub section which connects to the hub and comprises a monolithic laminate . in the embodiment described , the blade section is made up of the following raw materials : 0 °/ 90 ° glass fibre with an areal weight of 1152 g / m 2 , supplied by ahlstrom glassfibre +/− 45 ° glass fibre with an areal weight of 600 g / m 2 , supplied by ahlstrom glassfibre table 1 provides details of the material lay up for the centre section . in the embodiment described herein by way of example , approximately fourteen layers of +/− 45 ° glass fibre were needed to prepare the skins at the root end of the blade section . approximately seven layers of glass fibre were required towards the tip end of the blade section . for the lower half of the blade the skins were extended approximately 100 mm on each side to allow for overlaps . the spar caps required eleven layers of glass fibre at the root end and ten layers towards the tip end . the pet foam was cut for both webs ( spars ) and for the skins . when all glass fibre kits have been prepared the total weight of glass must be measured to establish the amount of cbt resin required . for example , for a 50 % vf ( fibre volume fraction ), half the weight of glass in powder should be added . the process according to the invention enables a blade section to be processed in a single shot . a lay - up comprising layers of glass fibre , cbt resin and foam was prepared . with reference to fig3 and 4 , the invention provides a method to support the lay - up 10 on the tool 12 before the vacuum is applied . with reference to fig3 , a support for the lower half of the blade section was created by placing nylon film tubes 13 , 13 a , 13 b into the profile of the tool 12 . the tubes 13 , 13 a , 13 b were filled with plastic powder or a suitable granular material and a vacuum was pulled to maintain the profile . the first step involved in constructing the blade lay - up was to place glass fibre 14 into the lower half of the tool 12 . the amount of glass fibre used determines the thickness of the lay - up . the next step involved the preparation of replicas of the spars 15 , 15 a . in the embodiment shown , wood or a similar material was used to reproduce the thickness and position of the spars on the tool 12 . three nylon tubes 13 , 13 a , 13 b were then placed in the tool 12 as shown in fig3 . one tube 13 a is positioned between the two spar replicas 15 , 15 a and the remaining two tubes 13 , 13 b were positioned each side of the spar replicas 15 , 15 a . the same procedure was carried out to prepare a support for the upper half of the tool . the skilled person will appreciate that a support can be provided using various different materials such as polystyrene blocks for example . fig4 shows the arrangement of the lay - up 10 in the lower half of the tool 12 . the glass lay - up 10 forming the outer skin was first prepared in the lower half of the tool . the first layer of +/− 45 ° glass 14 was weighed and placed into position on the tool 12 as shown in fig4 . the glass fibre 14 should extend 100 mm beyond the flange line 16 . half the weight of the glass fibre in powder was weighed out and dispersed evenly over the entire glass surface providing a layer 17 of powder . the procedure was repeated until the outer skin lay - up 10 was complete . foam 7 was then positioned on the skin lay - up 10 . the spar caps 6 were placed on the lay - up 10 . an inner skin layer 18 comprising glass fibre was then laid into the tool 10 over the foam layer 7 . two spar webs 19 , 19 a were then prepared . with reference to fig5 glass fibre 14 was laid up off line ( on a separate tool 12 a ) on each side of the foam 7 along with suitable amounts of powder 17 . with reference to fig6 , the upper and lower supports ( nylon tubes ) 13 , 13 c were placed at the leading edge into a vacuum bag tube 20 a 1 . 5 m wide and placed onto the tool 12 . the support 13 c from the upper portion of the tool was placed over the lower support 13 . the first spar web 19 was aligned alongside . as shown in fig7 , the centre support 13 a was placed into the tool 12 together with the upper centre support 13 d and the second spar web 19 a was aligned alongside . the supports 13 , 13 c and 13 a , 13 d were enclosed in vacuum bags 20 a and 20 b respectively . as shown in fig8 , the third complete support 13 b , 13 e was placed into the tool 12 in a similar manner to that described above with reference to the centre supports 13 a , 13 d . the lower half of the lay - up 10 and supports 13 , 13 a , 13 b , 13 c , 13 d , 13 e were then complete . with reference to fig9 and 10 , the lay - up 21 of the top half 22 of the tool 12 was prepared in reverse order to that described above for the lay - up 10 of the lower half of the tool 12 . as shown in fig9 , the first layer of the lay - up 21 forming the inner skin comprises a layer of glass fibre 14 which was laid up over the supports 13 , 13 a , 13 b , 13 c , 13 d , 13 e . the upper layers of the lay - up 21 were overlapped with the lower skins of the lay - up 10 to maximize the joint strength . the remaining layers 14 , 7 , 17 were laid up in opposite order to those of the lay - up 10 of the first half of the tool . with reference to fig9 and 10 , the complete lay - up comprises three sections comprising three sets of supports 13 , 13 c ; 13 a , 13 d ; and 13 b , 13 e , each enclosed in a vacuum bags 20 a , 20 b and 20 c respectively . the three vacuum bags 20 a , 20 b and 20 c were joined together at the ends and sealed to the tool 12 . a vacuum was applied . the system was checked to ensure that there were no leaks . with reference to fig1 , the nylon tube supports 13 , 13 a , 13 b , 13 c , 13 d , 13 e were removed from the tool 12 . the lay - up was then ready for processing . a combination of tool heating and internal air heating was used to heat the entire layup to an appropriate temperature . the preferred temperature is in the range 170 ° c . to 210 ° c . when the material was fully polymerised , the structure was allowed to cool at an appropriate rate so as to ensure structural integrity . fig1 shows a perspective view of a wind turbine blade obtainable by the process according to the invention . the invention provides a hybrid approach to the processing of a large structure such as a wind turbine blade . the blade 23 is composed of large area flat sections 24 as well as thick monolithic laminates such as are seen in the hub 25 and thicker spar cap areas 26 of the blade . as described above , the one - part cbt system is laid up in the large flat areas 24 of the blade , or in as much of the blade as is possible to fully polymerise using this material . the thicker sections of the blade such as the hub 25 and thicker sections of the spar can be laid up using reinforcement fibre ( fibre perform ) only . liquid resin infusion techniques ( such as vartm ) are then used with the two - part cbt system to infiltrate the thicker sections of the blade . in the process according to the invention both melt fronts can simultaneously infiltrate the preform and meet up at the interface formed between the glass fibre lay - up and the fibre preform to form a fully infiltrated and polymerised structure . the words “ comprises / comprising ” and the words “ having / including ” when used herein with reference to the present invention are used to specify the presence of stated features , integers , steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features , integers , steps , components or groups thereof . it is appreciated that certain features of the invention , which are , for clarity , described in the context of separate embodiments , may also be provided in combination in a single embodiment . conversely , various features of the invention which are , for brevity , described in the context of a single embodiment , may also be provided separately or in any suitable sub - 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reinforced anionic polyamide - 6 ”. in : proceedings of 7th international conference on flow processes in composite materials ( fpcm - 7 ) conference , university of delaware , newark , usa , july 2004 . 6 . van rijswijk k , vlasveld d p n , bersee h e n , picken s j . “ vacuum injection of anionic polyamide 6 ”. in : proceedings of 4th international conference on composite structures and technology ( iccst - 4 ) conference . durban , south africa , january 2003 . 7 . steven j . winckler , “ processing thermoplastic , resin film infusion materials , based on cyclic butylene terephthalate ”. in : proceedings of the 23rd sampe europe international conference , paris expo , sampe 2003 8 . coll , s . m ., murtagh , a . m . and ó brádaigh , c . m ., “ resin film infusion of cyclic pbt composites : a fundamental study ”, in : proceedings of the sampe europe 25 th international jubilee conference , paris , france , april 2004 .