TPI, UMaine, ORNL to leverage world’s largest polymer 3D printer for wind turbine tooling

In late May 2024, UMaine announced that it broke its own 2019 Guinness World Record for the largest polymer 3D printer, with the introduction of the Ingersoll “Factory of the Future 1.0,” shown here. Source | University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center (UMaine ASCC)

TPI Composites Inc. (TPI, Scottsdale, Ariz., U.S.) is partnering with the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center (UMaine ASCC, Oreno, U.S.) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, Tenn., U.S.) to use UMaine’s Ingersoll (Rockford, Ill., U.S.) MasterPrint, one of the world’s largest 3D printers, for the production of wind turbine tooling. The goal of this project is to understand how new technologies can provide faster, lower cost precision manufacturing of large, modular wind blade tooling.

The ASCC’s polymer 3D printer can print modular wind blade tooling at 500 pounds/hour, with segments up to 18.3 meters long × 6.7 meters wide × 3.0 meters high. With a five-axis machining head, the printer can achieve 5-mil precision, enabling tooling segments to be joined, to maintain vacuum integrity and to provide the dimensional accuracy demanded in wind blade manufacturing. As part of the project, the tooling will also incorporate 3D printed heating elements using co-extruded resistive wire to achieve uniform mold temperatures within 5°C and heating rates of 0.5°C per minute.