Methods for manufacturing wind turbine rotor blade panels having printed grid structures

US10865769B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• General Electric Company · US

Inventors

• James Robert Tobin · Simpsonville, US
• Norman Arnold Turnquist · Carlisle, US
• Stephen Bertram Johnson · Greenville, US
• Don Conrad Johnson · Simpsonville, US
• Thomas Merzhaeuser · Salzbergen, DE
• Peggy Lynn Baehmann · Glenville, US
• Stefan Herr · Greenville, US
• Murray Fisher · Greer, US
• Andrew McCalip · Houston, US
• Alan M. Walker · Simpsonville, US
• Todd Alan Anderson · Beaverton, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 21, 2017
• Grant date: Dec 15, 2020
• Expiry date: Mar 14, 2038

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02P70/50
• WIPO field: Other special machines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A method for manufacturing a rotor blade panel of a wind turbine includes placing one or more fiber-reinforced outer skins into a mold of the rotor blade panel. The method also includes printing and depositing, via a computer numeric control (CNC) device, a plurality of rib members that form at least one three-dimensional (3-D) reinforcement grid structure onto an inner surface of the one or more fiber-reinforced outer skins. Further, the grid structure bonds to the one or more fiber-reinforced outer skins as the grid structure is deposited. Moreover, the method includes printing at least one additional feature into the grid structure.