Wind Energy Applications

The use of TFP’s nonwovens is well established in wind turbines, with applications ranging from the surface finish of blades to improving the interlaminar toughness and providing EMI shielding to nacelles.  

The size of the wind turbines has increased significantly over the years, putting greater emphasis on minimising the weight of the structures whilst maintaining strength and maximising service time. Our lightweight nonwovens provide a number of solutions to help achieve this including:

• Surface Finish – TFP’s OPTIVEIL® nonwovens provide a high quality, resin rich surface finish to a composite. They are lightweight (ensuring minimal weight addition) and are used extensively as surfacing veils, where they minimise print through and reduce the amount of further processing required.
• Fracture Toughness - Our lightweight thermoplastic veils have been developed specifically to increase the interlaminar fracture toughness of a composite, reducing the susceptibility to damage and increasing service time. The veils are interleaved between reinforcement plies to deliver an improvement of up to 400% in Mode-I and Mode-II fracture toughness.
• EMI shielding –our conductive materials provide high levels of EMI shielding and have been used in the manufacture of nacelles to protect the structure from interference.
• Fire Protection - Our TECNOFIRE® materials can also provide fire protection to the composite structure. They can be resin infused and integrated into the composite, providing durable fire protection at the surface without compromising the integrity of the structure.