OBSERVATIONS OF CAPABILITIES - ineel.mx · Evaluation of local capabilities for wind turbine blade manufacture in ... blade mfg spec [email protected] ... define and detail the manufacturing

Informe Brian entregable 2a_150531_Final Page 1 of 19

Brian McNiff 43 Dog Island Rd Harborside, ME

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Evaluation of local capabilities for wind turbine blade manufacture in Mexico for the Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas

Brian McNiff

Document: MLI_15_IIE-5b_MEM_capabilities_Task2a_150531.docx Contract: MCNIFF/E/NC/18165

Deliverable 2a, Rev 1.6 Date: 31 May 2015

1 OBJECTIVE

The objective of this effort is to evaluate capabilities of organizations in the Mexican Eólico Machina (MEM) collaborative to manufacture MW scale wind turbine blades in Mexico. This activity is part of effort under a contract with the Instituto Investigaciones Electricas (IIE) per the Terms of Reference (TDR_Rotor_Blade_Consultancy.pdf) under IIE project ME-X1011. 2 APPROACH

The following steps constitute the approach for evaluating available capabilities that can be utilized for wind turbine (WTG) blade design, manufacturing, testing and certification.

- review program framework and plans for the Mexican wind turbine project, the participants and the overall context at the Instituto Investigaciones Electricas (IIE);

- visit team participants in Mexico based on availability and access; - review participant presentations from the February 2015 project meeting as well as

other available documents and sources; - document and review capabilities; - develop and prioritize a list of skill and facility requirements for blade development; - match the identified capabilities to identified requirements; and - identify and recommend strategies for filling any gaps in the capabilities.

This document presents the notes and outcome of this evaluation.


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3 INITIAL REVIEW AT THE INSTITUTO INVESTIGACIONES ELECTRICAS

A few days were spent initially at the Instituto Investigaciones Electricas to understand the context of wind energy in Mexico and the project efforts to date. This included an overview of the extant Mexican energy climate and the situation as regards renewables and wind. Most wind energy development in Mexico to date has been carried out by multinational developers using European and US manufactured wind turbines. In 2013, the Mexican government initiated the development of the Mexican Center for Innovation in Wind Energy (CEMIE-Eólico) as a consortium of industrial research centers, universities and interested commercial entities. IIE was given the lead to develop the MEM as the chief initiative of the new center. Financing for this effort came from the Mexican Ministry of Energy (SENER) and the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) using funds from the Global Environmental Facility. The overall objective of this project is to promote and enable the local development of wind turbines for distributed generation and to contribute to the increase of local manufacturing, supply, support services and other capabilities in Mexico in the field of wind energy. 4 OBSERVATIONS OF CAPABILITIES

The following are notes and observations from visiting research facilities and commercial establishments in Mexico that are involved in the MEM project. As mentioned, the focus is in identifying capabilities at these organizations that can be utilized for WTG blade design, manufacturing, testing and certification. Pertinent observations on facilities, personnel skills and experience and organizational capabilities are restated for each organization. 4.1 Instituto Investigaciones Electricas -_IIE

The Instituto Investigaciones Electricas (IIE) performs applied research, promotes and supports innovation and provides technical services into the oil, energy and electrical industries in Mexico. Part of their mission has been industrial and research developments in alternative energy, and, since late 2013, IIE has led the formation and operation of the CEMIE-Eólico collaborative. One of the chief strategic projects of CEMIE-Eólico is to develop and manufacture a wind turbine for the local production and development in Mexico (DETELM). As mentioned above, this is financed through a grant from the IDB and the SENER. Project 1 of CEMIE-Eólico is to design, manufacture and commission a 1.2 MW MEM turbine for a typical site in Mexico expected to be a distributed generation type project (one or several turbines as opposed to a large wind farm). Jorge M. Huacuz Instituto Investigaciones Electricas (IIE) [email protected]

Jaime Agredano Díaz Manager, Renewable Energy, IIE [email protected]

Francisco Lopez IIE, Material testing and chem. [email protected]


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Gonzalez processes

José Manuel Franco IIE, design using analytical tools for loads and structures

[email protected]

Raúl González Galarza

IIE, Lead project engineer, renewables, blade mfg spec

[email protected]

Juan Jose Rivera IIE, Researcher, turbomachinery [email protected]

Capabilities: Sophisticated and well developed understanding of wind turbine aerodynamic, structural and aero-elastic design including the proper use of standard WTG analytical and design software

Jose Manuel Franco – Presentations showed well-developed design and simulation models for global wind turbine design loads and blade structural design. These were utilized in a very thorough and state-of-the-art approach to comprehensive wind turbine design load case based analysis (according to IEC 61400-1 and GL certification rules). The analytical tools used were internationally validated ECN and TU Delft software packages. The presentations displayed a clear competency and deep understanding of the design approach of these standard wind turbine design tools. This was the result of training in the Netherlands, careful collaborative study/ research and employment of experienced consultants over the last 3 years. Additionally, a full blade design was developed including:

– complete aerodynamic planform and layout; – complete structural design including laminate schedule and expected properties – a developed finite element model of a completed structure – all required input (aerodynamic & structural) to standard rotor aeroelastic codes – a complete set of WTG design loads for the 20 year expected life.

Although this may not be the exact final design, this level of detail is fundamental to accurately estimating all loads including controls response and requirements and system dynamics. The loads from this analytical effort are currently being used to design and specify other turbine components such as the gearbox and rotor/ nacelle/ tower structures. It was also clear from presentations and follow on discussions that Mr. Franco and others on the IIE team have many years experience of electrical and mechanical systems engineering, design and operation. Capabilities: Project planning, development of component specifications, understanding of WTG blade manufacturing and requirements

Raul González – Raul is the technical manager for CEMIE-Eólico project 1 (Adquisición y fabricación de componentes para la integración de un aerogenerador prototipo de potencia media, de concepto amigable a la red). A fundamental part of this project - a complete and mature blade procurement specification - was provided, presented and discussed at length (_TdR para fabricacion de Aspas.docx, dated Nov 2014) at IIE. This document is a statement of work , or terms-of-reference, for a company or team to provide


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a set of blades as well as taking the design and an extra blade through complete design validation testing and component certification. This includes the following Tasks:

1. complete blade aerodynamic and structural design based on loads provided by IIE, iterate on aerodynamic design until design loads converge on IIE provided loads;

2. define and detail the manufacturing process; 3. perform actual manufacturing and/or provide supervision, oversight and

acceptance; 4. and documentation, testing and certification

As indicated, this is a very well considered and matured statement of work. Mr González and the collaborative team have recognized that, in all probability, the experience and capability to execute the whole process does not exist in a single group, and they have written the specification for the leader or integrator of a team to be responsible for the complete effort. The procurement specification did not have a complete clause on rating, scoring and judgment criteria for selecting candidate proposals. There was a placeholder clause, however. Recommendations will be made in another document to fill out this clause including an approach to maximize in-country content by making it part of the scoring. Capabilities: thorough composites material testing knowledge

Francisco Lopez Gonzalez – Presentations indicated a through knowledge of composites especially as regards the chemical processes involved and material testing (e.g., environmental effects). This expertise provides a good knowledge base for composites engineering and understanding effects of environmental degradation. 4.2 Somerset Technologies,

We met with Oswaldo Cortes and others from Somerset Technologies while at IIE. Somerset is part of a group of companies with complementary capabilities from mechanical and structural design and analysis to high technology custom machining and fabrication. A presentation was given on capabilities and current projects, and this was supplemented with information from their web sites. Oswald Cortes Somerset Technologies, Gen. manager [email protected]

Some observations:

- they seem to be able to take a concept all the way through design, analysis and hardware, including developing manufacturing utilizing a full array of analytical tools along with CAD/ CAE/ CAM

- did this with a yaw system retrofit on some wind turbines in Mexico - blade inspections using custom designed/ fabricated inspection platform, - expanding tools to provide monitoring, inspections and maintenance of WTG - beginning to provide services in resource assessment optimization , monitoring - experienced in providing NDT services (not sure depth)


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- in-depth projects also in other industries such as aircraft maintenance, truck and transport efficiency, condition monitoring systems

Somerset is interested in getting into blade design, manufacture and maintenance:

- have fabricated blades for a 5 m rotor. - have begun to expand in-house capabilities for diagnostics, inspection and repair - expanding their NDT expertise - have developed CFD for blades

Capabilities: Capable engineering service/ design firm with prototype fabrication capability and growing WTG site and operation knowledge. High interest in wind energy industry.

They are clearly an engineering services firm looking to expand the services they can provide into the wind industry. They appear to be well capitalized according to their site and presentation materials with a broad customer base in a number of industries.

4.3 Autonomous University of Queretaro, Center for Advanced Technology

We met with Dr. Juan Carlos Jáuregui Correra, professor of the engineering school graduate group in advanced materials and concepts. Their group started 7 years go to integrate many disciplines into renewable energy advanced applications to encourage innovation and risk taking in graduate engineers. The group is developing a 10 Kw wind

Figure 1 Mold (see stacked MDF on strong-back frame on left) and a blade fabricated at Autonomous University of Queretaro


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turbine with 7 meter blades as part of an array of advanced energy projects. The blade molds were fabricated by building up commercial wood composite panels (MDF) and CNC machining these to the design (see Figure 1). A very simple WTG design was chosen to accommodate the nature of student projects (schedules, etc), but it appeared to be a well executed and very impressive hands-on, student led process. A very creative method was used to simplifying the mold process by bypassing mast plug fabrication step. Its interesting to note that the blades were designed using an integrated blade design software acquired through a cooperation with TU Berlin that derives a structure from a modularly assembled aerodynamic design. The students were not versed enough to adapt the blade root transition (where every blade transitions from an airfoil on a spar to a solid frame that can be bolted to a steel hub), but it should function fine with only some hub losses during normal operation. Capabilities: Use of innovative materials, advanced manufacturing techniques, Presentations showed high temperature solar thermal project with modular heliostat concentrating mirrors made very simply with very effective controller and advanced boiler materials. This rather showcased their approach to innovation with materials and techniques, and then bringing concepts to operating systems with commercial partners. 4.4 Global Composites

We met with Rodrigo Ledesma Garcia at Global Composites in Querétaro. Global Composites is part of a larger group of composites businesses in Mexico (Interplast, Poliplast) providing products primarily to the automotive and bus industries. This group has been in business since the 80’s and has thousands of square meters of factory space and hundreds of employees. A local Poliplast factory that we toured makes luggage racks, trim panels, and fairings for buses. Some observations at Poliplast:

- molds up to 20 m, including closed molds, to make bus interior luggage rack assembly for the whole side above seats – including finish doors, support frame, hand-holds and mounts

- a complete, drop -in bus WC assembly with FRP enclosure and door, metal frame and mounting, plumbing, electrical etc

- capability – molds design and construction, integration of many substructures (eg, FRP on metal frames), sophisticated multi-part molds and assembly tooling

- mostly room temperature cured, hand layup with varying amounts of hand finish - did not observe high performance laminates – observed woven fabric, matt,

sprayed fiber/ resin application system - observed RTM equipment (not in use) and a moderate size oven for heat promoted

cure for smaller pieces - fully mature 9001 system in evidence


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- has worked extensively with automotive and bus industry with cooperative response to specifications that includes proposed redesigns – including tooling fabrication, complete manufacturing process design and execution plans

- Sophisticated CNC machines for making plugs and mold elements - some automatic fabric cutting machines - 10 or more active large molds and many smaller ones, skilled workforce, - good integration of FRP industrial systems and labor - no internal material testing – works with some universities and industrial research

groups such as CIDESI and CIATEQ Global Composites is developing advanced products and exploring industries to expand into including aerospace and wind turbines. It is clear they are using more advanced FRP techniques compared to the Poliplast production noted above. For instance, they are using VARTM, improved hand layup with vacuum bags and heat and pressure promoted cures for limited run helicopter, bus and aerospace parts. Some observations:

– research (internal and paid) for developing products with advanced laminate techniques

– including vacuum assisted resin transfer methods and vacuum and heat promoted hand layup (4x4x5m ovens), custom made molds and tooling

– most parts to date are relatively small using these RTM and promoted cure methods – developing business in aerospace – planes, jets, helicopter proposals and

prototypes at this point – aggressive quality system development and goals to meet aerospace requirements

Capabilities: Skilled FRP layup personnel, large mold making, robust mold and tooling fabrication, medium- large scale FRP serial production

Good basic industrial production using wet and dry layup, automated dry material cutting, experience making molds and producing serial production units up to 20 meter in closed and open molds. Skilled workforce in serial production of medium-large FRP products. Rodrigo Ledesma Garcia

Global Composites , project engineer

[email protected]

4.5 Center for Advanced Technology of Querétaro - CIATEQ

We visited CIATEQ in Querétaro. CIATEQ was established as part of the Mexican industrial/ technological research centers managed by National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT). CIATEQ provides technical consulting across a broad range of industries in :

- technical design and manufacturing methods; - quality control, materials and manufacturing; - development of machinery, processes, production management and control; - applied research for innovation and technological development; - assistance services for the establishment of new technology companies; and - industrial and technical training .


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They have 7 centers around Mexico with more than 3500 projects to date. CIATEQ does contract work for industrial customers, research for the Government and provides testing and certification. Isaac Hernandez Arriaga CIATEQ, engineer, Querétaro,

turbomachinery, Mechanicals [email protected]

Roberto Ramírez Tinoco CIATEQ, Manager, Machine and equipment mfg, Querétaro

[email protected]

Augustin Escamilla CIATEQ, Manager Renewables, Mechanical Systems, Querétaro – on exec committee for MEM

[email protected]

Emilio Munguiá Ponce CIATEQ, Director, Lerma/ Toluca [email protected]

A team of engineers and technicians are involved in many different aspects of wind energy. They have been developing and hiring expertise in mechanical systems, manufacturing processes, plastics and materials for the CEMIE-Eólico projects. 1. CIATEQ is a major partner in the MEM wind turbine collaborative with IIE. Initial design, specification and procurement of the wind turbine mechanical systems including the gearbox and pitch and yaw systems are part of their responsibilities. They have made an initial design of the gearbox for the 1.2 MW Mexican wind turbine 2. CIATEQ has a 4 year CEMIE-Eólico project developing a 10.8 m/ 30 kW turbine for Class 3 sites. 3. Developing capability for testing blades for smaller than 50 kW We toured the facilities. A very impressive array of state of the art, high technology machining and fabrication equipment and facilities were in evidence. Some observations:

- State of the art horizontal & vertical Mills, 5-axis CNC, electro-erosion and water jet cutting machines for metal fabrication, 3D printers even

- Not for high capacity fabrication – more focused on making one-off items for industry use or working out and setting up some production line or process

- Skilled personnel to make it work, good depth of engineering and technicians - High accuracy inspection, measurement and testing equipment from micron to

meter scale articles included material fatigue testing machines - Some quite sophisticated and complex manufacturing machines and processes

developed for agricultural, food processing, automotive, aerospace and other industries

- Comprehensive design and analytical tools and the expertise and skill to utilize them on complex structures and processes

- They have planned, coordinated and completed large projects with a broad range of aspects (hardware, software, processes etc) and expertise

- Commonly develop methods and fabricate prototypes or processes under contract or as R&D where they might share IP with royalty / cost share mechanism


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Capabilities: Advanced technology and fabrication expertise, skilled and adaptive engineering and project management

World class industrial research center with a broad range of industrial process knowledge from design to hands on fabrication. Good integration and project management of expertise at different facilities for planning, design, and fabrication of large scale prototypes and production processes. Impressive state of the art manufacturing facilities, equipment, analytical tools and skilled personnel. 4.6 Center for Advanced Technology of Querétaro - CIATEQ - Toluca

Emilio Munguiá Ponce CIATEQ, Director, Toluca [email protected]

We also visited a rather new CIATEQ facility in Toluca. We were given a tour with the Director Emilio Munguia. They are still in the process of populating the facility with machinery, lab capabilities and personnel. It was interesting to see a site plan that shows buildings planned for construction over the next year – including a large scale FRP fabrication facility. Some observations:

- Specializing in making and using plastics and composites - Design, tooling and fabrication using injection molding, thermo-forming, FRP etc

including pattern making, prototyping and tooling/mold expertise in-house - development of custom plastics including epoxies, for specific properties and

capabilities to measure those properties from mass spectrometers to strain testing - astounding metrology and material testing, partnership with Zeis with on site

equipment value in the tens of millions USD - advanced modeling tools for chemistry, material properties and structures - fabrication process development

Dr. Mungia indicated that integration and cooperation between CIATEQ labs and centers are an institution-wide priority. He indicated that they would support and supplement the wind turbine project as led and requested by CIATEQ Queretaro. Capabilities: Advanced plastics knowledge and expertise including mold fabrication and processes

Pattern making and mold design, use and understanding of resins in laminates. Not sure where exactly other expertise (e.g., plastic design) would be used to fabricate a limited run of wind turbine blades, but it does demonstrate CIATEQ depth in areas of expertise and how they can integrate and utilize these into projects. 4.7 Center for Engineering and Industrial Development - CIDESI

The Center for Engineering and Industrial Development (CIDESI) is a research and industrial innovation center originally financed and setup by the Mexican government and managed by CONACYT. Currently, about 30% of their budget is from Government supported research and the remainder comes from industrial partners/ customers for


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applied research and providing a broad range of high technology services, e.g. developing unique tooling and processes for manufacturing specific industrial parts. Edgar Miranda Paniagua CIDESI, composites project

engineer, Querataro [email protected]

Carlos Rubio González CIDESI, project and team manager, Querétaro

[email protected]

Guillermo Munoz Hernandez

CIDESI, lead engineer, Querétaro

[email protected]

Aljandra Calvo Avila CIDESI – formerly at GE Services

Ulises Sanchez Santana CIDESI, Querétaro

We visited CIDESI facility in Querétaro where we met with the wind energy applications team that has been being built up and trained. There are several wind energy projects they are currently involved in :

1. Part of the MEM Mexican 1.2 MW WTG project including contributing to research, design and procurement phases collaboratively with IIE and others.

2. Developing a 3m/ 1kW wind turbine blades and testing with a simplified approach not as developed as IEC 61400-23

3. Developing a 9m/ 60 kW WTG over 3 years (just started), 4. Applied research on evaluating advanced blade manufacture with the CEMIE-Eólico

partners “Proyecto P02: Investigación y desarrollo de métodos automatizados para el acomodo de capas de materiales compuestos aplicado a la manufactura de palas” including:

a. Doing analytical work using CFD and ECN codes comparing aerodynamic tailoring and airfoil options, etc

b. Wind tunnel testing of airfoil sections fabricated using French composites automated layup robotics (Coriolis Composites)

c. Evaluating blade fabrication approaches with Sandia and Delft techniques d. Cooperative arrangements on this with TU Munich and ECN plus other

formal cooperations with RWTH Aachen, Scheffield University, Texas A&M 5. Creating facility (May 2016) to fabricate and test blades to 30 meter 6. Proposal to make 18 m blade in the near future 7. Evaluation of the current state of the art of WTG blade manufacturing and

evaluation of use of advanced airfoils and aerodynamic innovations as part of the CEMIE-Eólico partnerships “ Proyecto P03: Diseño de rotores para aerogeneradores de eje horizontal, con incorporación de una de tres opciones de innovación aeroelástica, incluyendo construcción y prueba de una sección “. Not sure if this is part of the MEM effort directly, but it was very well executed:

a. Thorough research (from Web, site visits and company publications)) of current manufacturers including OEMs and blade suppliers

b. Good in-depth evaluation of techniques and methods currently being used in blade manufacture including layup, RTM, mold and material handling, tooling, inspection, acceptance, etc


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c. Review of available information on current patents and inventions used for blade manufacturing as well as company research and innovations

d. Well informed, sober assessment of blade manufacturing state of the art and trends along with tradeoffs and challenges for new entrants

e. A thorough review of research on selected advanced airfoils and aerodynamic innovations (flatback TE, vents, etc) including fabrication, tests, CFD and the math involved was also included

f. Good engineering and manufacturing judgment displayed in assessments g. This is critically important step in any such effort to avoid repeating mistakes.

The wind energy applications team has the following people and expertise:

- Analytical tools and training specific to wind turbines using ANSYS, Solidworks and ECN aero-elastic simulation and blade design software;

- In-house experience with resin infusion, pre-preg and other advanced FRP; - Alejandra C. -> formerly at GE Wind Americas in manufacturing, services and

maintenance support, experienced with RTM and blade manufacture and O&M; - Edgar M. -> experience with testing of materials e.g., as-built laminates, trained on

use of ECN design and manufacturing tools with IIE, part of team on drivetrain design and specification with CIATEQ and IIE;

- Carlos R. -> project manager, experience with highly engineered FRP both research and practical;

- Guillermo M. -> engineering lead, PhD in composites engineering; and - Ulises S. -> PhD in mechanical systems, dynamics, materials, fatigue.

Team Capabilities: Experience with advanced FRP materials and processes, understand blade loading and fabrication details & risk areas, demonstrable large project leadership and collaboration experience

This is an impressive, growing team with a very broad range of capabilities and experience in FRP design, fabrication and testing (materials and large scale). They have one engineer with MW scale WTG blade experience on staff, and they are learning rapidly through thorough research of the state of the art of design/ manufacturing and smaller blade design and fabrications. This group will be key to a successful in country blade manufacturing program


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We toured the CIDESI Querétaro facilities. On site there are clearly experienced groups of engineers and technicians working on a range of projects in many specialties and industries. Some observations:

- Fabricated 1.7 m blades using high tech tooling and process (Figure 2): o CNC to make molds, vacuum assisted RTM room temp process used o Used +/- 45° UD glass fabric, bonded clam shells with superglue(!) o Performed ultimate and some fatigue testing of fabricated blades o On 3rd iteration of fabrication, test, redesign – now implementing a spar

- Sophisticated material testing (much for Bombadier Canada and Mexico) o Instron and MTS fatigue test machines for metal tension and compression o Custom designed shear test machine for laminates o Testing laminates and sandwich/ stiffeners material bonding also o Several NDT systems, lab based and portable o Chemistry testing (make up, resin ratios etc) o Can test in environmental chambers

- Many fabrications of purpose-built machines for complex and advanced industrial applications:

o e.g., QC equipment for inspecting auto clutches within the assembly process o e.g., Specialty robotic system for part of auto assembly o complex items made of many elements and integrated actuation and control o These are done based on specification – including design, fabrication, test,

deployment at factories

Figure 2 CIDESI 1 kW blades


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o Noticed tooling and remnants from previous large and complex projects - Very high tech and advanced machine shops and assembly areas

o Including 5 axis CNC mills and grinders, automated welding & cutting, etc o Very well staffed and maintained

4.8 TEMACO

John Harris – TEMACO is in Mexico City with about 4,000 m2 of production space. There was much more outdoor inventory and storage space. They currently have an active production line to make so-called panga boats in fiberglass for IMEMSA , a German, Mexican, and Japanese (Yamaha) cooperation. They claim to have 40 % of Mexican small boat market and a significant export market. I observed a fairly mature wet layup process to make 20 ft to 34 ft open shell, shallow draft V-hull boats for fishing, work and pleasure. Some observations:

- pre-cut fabric for each boat design, done to patterns by hand - workers seem quite skilled & efficient in wet hand layup (HLU) with no resin pooling

or dry laminate observed in the 20 or so boats in process, long employee retention - fabric mostly bi-direction weaves and matt, no uniaxial or multi-axial tows, final

laminate about 8 mm (without stiffener panels) - make and maintain all molds, some of which have moveable and rotatable frames

(see Figure 3) to ease layup and production work, molds replaced after 400 cycles - 3 boats in active molds, 5 boats in final finish, 16 boats in mid-process - panel stiffeners used, again pre-cut but placement accuracy didn’t seem critical - multiple element assembly with pre-molded substructures (see Figure 3) e.g.,

stiffener frames, gunwales, seats, fish wells, stern wells, bow seats and some added at final finish, like rub rails.

- looked at QC records and some units coming out of molds – very tight range of weight variations (for 26 ft boats == 460 kg +/- 12 kg), rather good for HLU

- saw little grinding (minimal dust or debris), weight tracking and control with all waste stored even though an open mold, hand layup process- good planning

- no final hull painting, indicates good mold maintenance, careful gel coating and well managed cure process.

- all this indicates a mature process and skilled work for the method used - laminates in range of 70% resin/ 30% fiber, by weight, I believe – not acceptable in

blades due to excess rotating mass causing dynamic and secondary effects - room temperature cured polyester resins used exclusively


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Figure 3 TEMACO Panga 10 meter rotating and movable mold - workers applying panel stiffeners below gunwale, note soon to be installed stiffener frames stacked to right

I also observed 3 molds and tooling sets for Colibri (sp? – found little in web search) wind turbine blades up to 10 kW. There was a 20 kW master blade plug but no molds or blades have been made from it. The modified hydraulic presses were used to clamp the blade clamshell molds together. About 200 blades have been fabricated from the molds but few recently. Reviewed pictures of custom made FRP items from night club stages, to movie props to jitney bodies, race cars, cooling towers, - it goes on. Nothing of the scale of 32m wind turbine blades, but they have made complex structures from one-offs to large scale production with multi-element molds (e.g., they made 11,000 porta-johns for the Mexican government). They have a pattern maker in house (!) - very important for making molds in the classic approach of fabricating a master plug to make the molds and tooling from. Capabilities: Skilled FRP layup personnel, large pattern/ mold making, robust mold and tooling fabrication, experience in medium to large scale FRP serial production

Dry and wet layup, dry material cutting, experience making molds and serial production. The hand layup methodology produces a heavier laminate than automated processes, but the skill in applying and orienting fabrics into complex molds is the same. 4.9 Dow Chemical

We visited Dow Chemical offices in Mexico City. Francisco Serrano was in the office with two on-line participants. This included Kristina Alziati who has been at Dow Chemicals for


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30 years. She has been the lead in wind applications for 10 years in Latin America currently based in Brazil (where Tecsis and Enercon manufacture blades). Mr Serrano gave a presentation on the raw materials that they provide including resins (epoxy, polyesters, etc), bonding systems, panel stiffeners, infusion materials (?) and solvents into the blade manufacturing industry. They have worked closely with the manufacturers and even designed application specific materials for this application. This has allowed them to developed a great deal of experience with application methods. As participants in the collaborative they offer this expertise in the materials and methods. Capabilities: Advanced resin and bonding systems expertise,

Presentations showed that Dow has worked with many blade manufacturing groups world wide (Brazil, Texas, Mexico, Europe) developing the infusion and wetting processes and customizing their resin systems (different resins bases, viscosities, cure rates, etc) to the unique requirements of specific wind turbine blade fabrication methodologies. This expertise could be brought to bear in this project, and it is clear Dow is interested and committed to providing such help. Francisco Serrano Dow Specialty Chems & Epoxy, Querétaro region [email protected]

Kristina Alziati Dow Specialty Chemicals , manager wind applications, Latin America

Fernando Diez Dow Specialty Chemicals, Mexico

5 MATCHING REQUIREMENTS TO CAPABILITIES

5.1 Requirements

A list of skills and experience critical to successfully designing, building and certifying a set of wind turbine blades is listed in Table 1. These have not been prioritized here. NOTE: I have left facilities out of the requirements table. While it is important to have the space, machinery and facilities to do this properly, I observed that most of the organizations I visited have sufficient facilities space that can be re-purposed for this effort as well as support shops and skilled personnel needed for making other equipment such as support frames, strong-backs, and other tooling. Any required specialty machinery (e.g., RTM equipment) would need to be procured by most entities, and the cost can be assumed a small part of the cost of mold and tooling fabrication.

5.2 Overlay of capabilities

Organizations with capabilities matching the requirements are inserted in the appropriate rows in Table 1. An initial identification has been made of the gaps or needs in matching existing capabilities to those required for the project. Those elements without matched organizations obviously are gaps, but others are more subtle. Some rating of the matching of capabilities to requirements are included to provide caveats and qualifiers for the matching which, to be honest, are more gray than black or white


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matches. For instance, some engineers at IIE, CIATEQ and CEDSI were have been using the WTG design and aero-elastic software packages, but they have not actually built hardware based on these tools. Oversight and review by an expert group that has more experience with using these tools on actual hardware can be used to increase the probability of success by augmenting the local talent. Recommendations on how to address these needs is provided in another report.

Table 1 Requirements Matched to in-Country Capabilities

(Ratings: 5 = ideal match to requirements, 1= poor match )

Required Critical Capabilities Organization Match Rating

Notes

1 Wind turbine blade design need expert review

1a – aerodynamic design and aero-elastic modeling

IIE, CIDESI, CIATEQ, UAQ

3 limited - trained in use of models

1b – planform design and structural integration and analysis

IIE, CIDESI, CIATEQ, UAQ

3 limited - trained in use of models

2 High performance composite engineering expert review

2a – High strength/ weight, laminate knowledge

CIDESI, CIATEQ, Dow

5

2b – structural analysis, FEA modeling IIE, CIDESI, CIATEQ

4

2c – use FRP material property & fatigue data bases

CIDESI, CIATEQ

4 important?

3 Process manufacturing experience using FRP

Global, TEMACO, Dow

4

3a – RTM or other well developed laminate system

Global, CIDESI, CIATEQ, Dow

4 smaller scale

3b – workers experienced in FRP fabrication for material cutting, layup, inspection and finish

Global, TEMACO

4 smaller scale

3c – Mature quality system (9001) for repeatability

Global, Dow 4 lacking WTG knowledge

4 Experience fabricating accurate molds & tooling

Global, TEMACO

4 medium scale

4a – Multiple elements, clam-shell molds, compound curves, joints, blind bonding, steep laminate transitions

Global, TEMACO

3 WTG specific

4b – Plug, molds, substructures (root, spar, beams)

Global, UAQ, CIDESI

4

5 Project management IIE, CIDESI, CIATEQ

5


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Required Critical Capabilities Organization Match Rating

Notes

5a – project planning, management and execution

IIE, CIDESI, CIATEQ

5

5b – budgeting and resource management planning

IIE, CIDESI, CIATEQ

5

6 Acceptance testing - manufacture review

6a – As-built coupon strength and composition tests,

CIATEQ, CIDESI

5

6b – Geometrical accuracy – airfoil & planform

CIATEQ, CIDESI

3 WTG specific

6c – Inspections for poor bonds, voids, laminate discontinuities, etc using NDT

Somerset (NDT),

CIATEQ, CIDESI

3 WTG specific

6d – Measuring weight and CG location, stiffness, eigen-frequencies

need WTG specific advice

- basic knowledge

7 Certification

7a – wind turbine blade testing experience 1

7b – experience in any product certification CIATEQ 2 Do they certify ?

7c – experience specific to wind turbine certification

1

Notes: UAQ = Autonomous University of Querétaro

6 SUMMARY

In my judgment there appears to be sufficient capability to manufacture large wind turbine blades within the organizations that were visited, researched and interviewed. However, no single Mexican organization appears to have all of the needed capabilities at the scale required. Manufacturing large multi-element FRP blades with sufficient reliability has historically grown organically starting with experience with other, smaller FRP structures (e.g., LM and TPI started with boats) and increased that knowledge base empirically by designing and building progressively larger and more complex structures. The final step, of course, is a continuous learning curve that comes from fabricating and deploying hundreds of units and learning from the problems and successes. The initiation and organic growth of those capabilities have already progressed in the Mexican organizations discussed here (see Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3), and, while there are gaps in the local knowledge base, McNiff believes they can be readily supplemented and augmented with the appropriate selection of consultancies and international industrial vendors.


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The level to which IIE and the MEM consortium decide to do that is up to them, of course. But some guidance is provided in another memo on the required skills and possible entities that can provide them.

Table 2 Organizations visited and main contacts

Organization Lead Contact ID

Instituto Investigaciones Electricas

Jorge M. Huacuz, Raúl González Galarza

IIE

Somerset Tech Oswaldo Cortes Somerset

Global Composites Rodrigo Ledesma Global

University of Querétaro Juan Carlos Jáuregui Correra UAQ

Centro de Inginieria y Desarolla Industrial

Guillermo Munoz CIDESI

Center for Advanced Technology

Augustin Escamilla CIATEQ

TEMACO John Harris TEMACO

Dow Chemical Mexicana Francisco Serrano Dow

Table 3 MEM participants interviewed –(also listed in pertinent clause)

Name Organization/ Role Email Contact

Jorge M. Huacuz

Instituto Investigaciones Electricas (IIE), GEF-IDB Project coordinator

[email protected]

Jaime Agredano Díaz Manager, Renewable Energy, IIE [email protected]

Francisco Lopez Gonzalez

IIE, Material testing and chem. processes

[email protected]

José Manuel Franco IIE, MEM design using analytical tools for loads and structures

[email protected]

Raúl González Galarza IIE, MEM Project lead engineer, Electromechanical engineer

[email protected]

Juan Jose Rivera IIE, Researcher, turbo-machinery [email protected]

Oswald Cortes Somerset Technologies, director [email protected]

Rodrigo Ledesma Garcia

Global Composites mfg, project engineer

[email protected]

Dr. Juan Carlos Jáuregui Correra

Autonomous University of Querétaro, professor, advanced materials and concepts graduates

[email protected]

[email protected]

Guillermo Munoz Hernandez

CIDESI, lead engineer, Querétaro [email protected]

Edgar Miranda Paniagua

CIDESI, composites project engineer, Querétaro

[email protected]

Carlos Rubio Gonzalez CIDESI, director of applied research, project leader, Querétaro

[email protected]

Alejandra Calvo Avila CIDESI, manufacturing composites engineer, was at GE

mailto:[email protected]


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Name Organization/ Role Email Contact

Ulises Sanchez Santana

CIDESI , Querétaro

Isaac Hernandez Arriaga

CIATEQ, engineer, Querétaro turbomachinery, Mechanicals

[email protected]

Roberto Ramírez Tinoco

CIATEQ, Manager, Machine equipment manufacture, Querétaro

[email protected]

Augustin Escamilla CIATEQ, Manager renewables, Mechanical Systems, Querétaro–

[email protected]

Emilio Munguiá Ponce CIATEQ, Director, Lerma [email protected]

John Harris TEMACO, owner, FRP and boats [email protected]

Francisco Serrano Dow Specialty Chems & Epoxy, Queretaro regional mgr

[email protected]

Kristina Alziati Dow Specialty Chemicals, wind applications Latin America (Brazil)

Fernando Diez Dow Specialty Chemicals, Mexico End of document

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