Coriolis launches robotic automation for composite wind turbine blades

Citation

(2006), "Coriolis launches robotic automation for composite wind turbine blades", Industrial Robot, Vol. 33 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2006.04933bab.006

Coriolis launches robotic automation for composite wind turbine blades

Coriolis launches robotic automation for composite wind turbine blades

Keywords: Robotics, Automation, Composite materials

Coriolis Composites has developed a robotic system for producing large composite components that is claimed to be faster and cheaper than the existing manual processes. Following six years of research and development, the tiny start-up company began marketing the patented solution to industry in the first quarter of 2006.

A joint research project between technical universities in Belfort, France and Stuttgart, Germany led to the creation of Coriolis Composites in 2000. Located in Brittany, France, the company currently employs five people, which includes its three founders. Financial support has been provided by the Ministry of Research in France.

The initial research project focused on the production of composite hulls for yachts. This application was the subject of a first patent. Coriolis subsequently identified wind turbine blades as a potential application, and this became the subject of a second patent.

The manufacture of composite parts is currently mostly manual. In most situations, pre-prepared woven fibre material is used, and operators position this material in the mould. The automated solution that Coriolis has developed uses a robot to take fibre straight from a bobbin or reel, and lay it in a mould, in the correct quantity and orientation.

While the robot is a standard six-axis Fanuc robot, the tooling system that handles the fibre has been developed specifically for the application, and is highly innovative. Two versions are available, one for placing dry fibre in a mould, and one for applying resin to the fibre and placing the impregnated fibre in the mould. Both cut the fibre as necessary, orientate it and push it into the mould. The current design of robot head is able to handle four fibres at a time, and manipulates each one independently. The aim is to increase this number to 32, says Clementine Gallet, Coriolis CEO. Theoretically, the more fibres the robot can handle simultaneously, the more productive the machine is. However, the weight of the tooling increases too which slows down the movement. With 32 fibres, the tooling would weigh 150 kg, which is the maximum possible. Options for handling carbon fibre, glass fibre and aramide are available.

Using spools of fibre rather than woven fabric cuts the costs of raw material by 50-75 per cent. Wastage is also much lower. Coriolis also claims that its automated system is ten times faster than the manual process. It can place 10-200 kg/h. The quality of the end-product is also improved due to variation in product of only ±0.3 mm. Additionally, the flexibility of a robot can enable better optimised placement of the fibre to obtain a final product that is even more lightweight than previously possible.

The advantages of using robotic automation for composite manufacture vary from application to application, says Clementine Gallet. Whereas cost would be the main advantage of using robots to produce composite wind turbine blades, flexibility and reproducibility would be the key benefits for the aeronautics industry, she comments. Though composite materials are starting to be adopted more widely in the automotive industry, it is a sector where capital investment is a key consideration. So interest in the Coriolis technology is low.

Figure 3 Schematic diagram of Coriolis's robotic solution for building a composite wind turbine blade

Different configurations of workcell are possible with the Coriolis solution depending on the size and shape of the mould to be worked on. The robot can be mounted on a linear track (Figure 3). The mould can also be mounted on a positioning table and rotated during the fibre placement process. Using all eight axes, the maximum working envelop currently possible is a cylinder 4 m diameter and 25 m long. Additional robots can be included in the cell to increase output. But it would not be economic to use the solution for parts smaller than 1 m.

Coriolis has developed simulation and programming systems to support its robotic solution, providing the ability to assess the feasibility of a workpiece, analyse and optimise cycle times, and generate the robot program.