Olivier Kerdoncuff: This partnership is linked to Poweend’s strategy of manufacturing its blades in-house, particularly the moulds. Our collaboration has been built around shared values, such as innovation and technical rigour. Thanks to our industrial capabilities and our experience in large-scale projects, we were able to react quickly. Poweend launched its new factory last year, and we supported the team right through to delivery of the moulds. We also trained them in the use of the moulds.
How long did it take you to make the mould?
Between the pre-studies, design, manufacture of the moulding skins, heating and hydraulic systems, and certification of the tooling, the project took around a year to see the light of day. To manufacture a blade, you need a main mould, that of the 32 m composite hull. Inside the wind turbine, there are also smaller structural parts, which are used for strength, but which also measure around thirty metres. We therefore had to produce a total of six moulds for a single blade.
What are the new innovations in the mould?
The main mould is used for the outer shell and the blade assembly. Hence the inversion technology used to bond the whole assembly. The moulds are assembled very precisely using a hydraulic rotation system, a first for SMM.
The mould skin also has an electric heating circuit. We are increasingly offering this technology to our customers who are involved in mass production. It means that only the part can be heated, without the need for an oven, which saves energy, especially for large parts. We have recently started offering this technology to boat manufacturers. Although this heating system already exists in the wind energy sector, its use increases the added value of our moulds. The savings can also be significant compared with the price of large ovens.
The last major innovation is the use of recycled materials in the mould skin. We have used a fabric made partly from recycled glass fibre. We now use non-virgin materials in 80% of the moulds we produce, and every year we increase the proportion of recycled or bio-sourced materials, whether fibre or resin. Within the year, we plan to structure a range of moulds with an ever-increasing proportion of recycled and biobased materials, along with the associated technical specifications. For the Poweend moulds, we have incorporated around 10% recycled fibre, but we are in a position to increase this proportion to 30 or 40%.
Where were the moulds for Poweend made before?
The moulds were made in China, where most wind turbine manufacturers are based. Poweend was bought (in 2020 by Octave Klaba, founder of OVHcloud, editor’s note). Its production is not yet robotised, but it probably will be in the near future, like all companies that mass-produce composites. In general, when our customers robotise their parts, there are adaptations to the environments, thanks to optical sensors, but wind turbine blades are not necessarily the most easily automated parts. Poweend’s current objective is to produce two blades a week. If production increases, we will have to ‘duplicate’ the tooling, an operation that we regularly carry out for customers who, for example, increase their production rates or replicate their production sites.
In November 2024 you unveiled your latest investment, a 5 x 2 x 1.2 metre LSAM (Large Scale Additive Manufacturing) 3D printing machine and its machining centre for large parts. Did you use it for this project?
The blade parts are far too large to use this technology. However, we have recently been able to use our 3D printing machine for aeronautical parts.
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