Windmill Blade Molds 3D Printed By National Labs (energy.gov)

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Windmill Blade Molds 3D Printed By National Labs (energy.gov)

Posted by yaelk on Tuesday February 9, 2016 @07:32AM from the gone-with-the-wind dept.

MountainLogic writes: Last year ORNL produced a 3D printed Shelby. This year, the National Labs are using the mother of all 3D printers to make windmill molds cheaper and faster to produce in the US. The size of the current 150 foot utility scale blades are being extended with these techniques. US DOE is providing a leading role to advance US manufacturing technology and competitiveness. Welcome back rust belt, we missed you.

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Link to TFA by sims+2 · 2016-02-09 07:37 · Score: 4, Informative

http://energy.gov/eere/article...
For mobile users till that gets fixed.

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1. Re:Link to TFA by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · 2016-02-09 09:16 · Score: 1
  
  I'm not on mobile but I never notice those links inside the green title bar. There's too much visual noise around the title already.
Huh? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 07:39 · Score: 1, Insightful

Why not 3D print the blades directly? I was told, in no uncertain terms, that 3D printing is the future, and anything else is just Luddite.
I was told 3D printed houses, 3D printed cars,3D printed airplanes,3D printed Mars colonies,3D printed rockets,3D printed food,3D printed organs.
Now all you have is a big mold? So what?
1. Re: Huh? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 08:01 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah. Call me when they incorporate graphene into the process. Then the future will truly be here.
2. Re:Huh? by barc0001 · 2016-02-09 08:02 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  3D printed objects aren't the strongest due to the way the layers are laminated together. I imagine the last place you'd want a weak join is on a 150+ foot long blade swishing through the air. Better to make the mold and then form the actual blade in the mold.
3. Re: Huh? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 08:06 · Score: 0
  
  Thursday the LIGO people will have a pre-announcement that there will eventually be an announcement regarding 3D printed graphene. Oh and this will be a Forbes exclusive, so turn off your ad blocker.
4. Re:Huh? by Tailhook · 2016-02-09 08:32 · Score: 1
  
  I was told, in no uncertain terms, that 3D printing...
  No, you weren't told that. At least not by anyone credible. That's just your feverish little mind making stuff up to fit your 3D-printing-is-hype narrative.
  
  --
  Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
5. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 08:34 · Score: 0
  
  You are a Luddite. Computers got better, therefore everything will. This is obvious, just compare the maiden flight of the Boeing 747 in 1969 with today.
6. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 09:05 · Score: 0
  
  Yes,I was. Would like some links or will you conveniently ignore them to by putting another fishbowl over your head?
  Funny how you revise history to fit your failed promises, comrade. Erased any people from photographs lately?
7. Re:Huh? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · 2016-02-09 09:17 · Score: 1
  
  Or today's Concorde with the one from 1976.
8. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 09:46 · Score: 0
  
  And speaking of feverish minds making up stuff, your posts are better than acid! Holy cow you're one paranoid little shitstain!
9. Re:Huh? by barc0001 · 2016-02-09 10:33 · Score: 1
  
  I don't even know where to start with such a moronic statement.... Maybe when you graduate and get into the real world for a few years you might see things differently, like as in closer to reality.
10. Re:Huh? by Ungrounded+Lightning · 2016-02-09 13:01 · Score: 1
  
  3D printed objects aren't the strongest due to the way the layers are laminated together. I imagine the last place you'd want a weak join is on a 150+ foot long blade swishing through the air.
  You betcha.
  Especially since a spinning blade gets more efficient as it gets faster. Higher speed = lower torque for a given horsepower density, so a higher tip speed ratio (TSR) wastes less energy "twisting" the air downwind.
  Efficient wind turbines run at a TSR of 6 or higher - which means that in windy conditions the tips are running at an appreciable fraction of the speed of sound.
  If one of those puppies breaks off it's NOT the kind of baseball bat or boomerang you want coming toward you, whether flying or summersaulting along the ground. (Imagine a caber toss with giants and redwood logs.) Not to mention what the resulting unbalanced spinning does to the other blades and the pylon.
  
  --
  Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
11. Re:Huh? by Immerman · 2016-02-09 14:05 · Score: 1
  
  And so it will. 3D printed blades may well eventually be stronger and lighter than molded versions. But not today, when 3D printing is still in its infancy.
  Just like when transistor radios first came out they couldn't hold a candle to a proper vacuum tube radio. They were radically smaller, lighter, cheaper, and more durable, and basically created the portable music market, but they lagged far behind in the most important feature of the existing radio market: sound quality.
  Or maybe not . Even today vacuum tubes are superior to transistors in some applications. Just because a new technology is superior in most respects doesn't mean that here aren't areas where it just can't compete the old technology. And material science is one of those fields where 3D printing may never be able to fully compete. That doesn't mean it can't be strategically coupled with older casting and machining technology to reach heights neither technology could achieve on its own.
  
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  --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
12. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 14:30 · Score: 0
  
  It's the central tenet of the Space Nutter belief system. Just look below.
  "3D printed blades may well eventually be stronger and lighter than molded versions. But not today, when 3D printing is still in its infancy.
  Just like when transistor radios first came out they couldn't hold a candle to a proper vacuum tube radio. "
  From physical reality to information processing, just like that. It's a very popular argument among the clueless.
13. Re:Huh? by BoogieChile · 2016-02-09 14:44 · Score: 1
  
  OMG, that's so true!!! Just look at what NASA is sending to the moon now-a-days, compared with 1969!!
14. Re:Huh? by Bartles · 2016-02-09 15:01 · Score: 1
  
  Laying up composites is much, much, faster. And it actually is an additive process as well. 3D printed molds can be made much, much faster than traditional molds. You don't need to make a model, and you don't need to use a subtractive process.
15. Re:Huh? by Bartles · 2016-02-09 15:04 · Score: 1
  
  Also, laying up composites is a very fast process. It is also an additive process like 3D printing. 3D printing a 150' turbine blade is not fast. 3D Printing excels for some things, but it does not and never will, excel at everything.
16. Re:Huh? by LordWabbit2 · 2016-02-09 18:59 · Score: 1
  
  They ARE making the mold...
  
  3D printers to make windmill molds
  
  --
  There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
Cheaper and Faster???? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 07:42 · Score: 0

I have trouble believing that 3D printing is cheaper and faster for a mass-produced commodity like windmill blades...
1. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by bws111 · 2016-02-09 07:47 · Score: 2
  
  Reading is Fundamental. They printed a MOLD in order to mass-produce the blades using regular manufacturing techniques.
2. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by Mr+D+from+63 · 2016-02-09 07:59 · Score: 2
  
  Why are 3d printed molds going to be so much better than CNC produced molds?
3. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 08:01 · Score: 0
  
  And why did they 3d print a mold?
4. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by gnupun · 2016-02-09 08:03 · Score: 1
  
  Molds are quite expensive to make... would be my guess.
5. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by LuxuryYacht · 2016-02-09 08:07 · Score: 2
  
  Because these are 3D printed molds.
  
  --
  Quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
6. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by buchner.johannes · 2016-02-09 08:08 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Because you don't need a plug. Says TFA. Presumably that is a positive shape that has to be produced first out of which the mold is made. With 3d printing you can make the mold directly.
  I guess with CNC (subtractive manufacturing) you can only make a blade shape, but not its negative while with 3d printing (additive manufacturing) you can make either.
  
  --
  NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
7. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by Mr+D+from+63 · 2016-02-09 08:23 · Score: 2
  
  You can make a negative mold with CNC, you just do it in two halves. It is done all the time. I do see how you might produce a continuous enclosed mode with 3D, but its hard to see why that method is advantageous regarding the final product.
8. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 08:24 · Score: 0
  
  Because they appear to be working with fiberglass/carbon fiber. In order to do that you have to have a structure to lay the material on. My guess would be they want to lay the materials over an internal mold so they can have a contiguous blade with no seams. In order to do that they have to create a new mold each time since the old one is either left in the blade or destroyed afterwards to remove it. You could CNC it but that would make for a LOT of wasted/recycled material.
9. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 08:26 · Score: 1
  
  Molds are fabulously expensive to machine. Molding is a high capital endeavour, mostly because of the cost of molds and presses. It's very profitable, but you have to sell a lot of product to recoup tooling costs.
  Not sure why anyone is silly enough to believe this is going improve anything in the US, however. It's not like Asian manufacturers are incapable of stealing the IP, operating a 3-D printer, building cheaper blades and shipping them in here, tariff free, as usual.
10. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by Mr+D+from+63 · 2016-02-09 08:28 · Score: 2
  
  After a bit more thought, I could see how CNC produced molds might require a lot more material to start with, if the blade has a very curved shape. But I'm not sure why just doing it in sections that fit together would be a big disadvantage either.
11. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by Hognoxious · 2016-02-09 08:46 · Score: 1
  
  They should make the mold out of ice or something. Then melt it and pour it out.
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
12. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · 2016-02-09 09:22 · Score: 2
  
  According to Stratasys, for small runs and development, 3D-printed plastic molds are faster to make and cheaper than CNC-milled aluminium or steel molds.
13. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by serviscope_minor · 2016-02-09 09:37 · Score: 1
  
  Because these are 3D printed molds. ... they are cheaper and faster to make.
  CNC machining is not particularly quick, easy or cheap.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
14. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by trout007 · 2016-02-09 12:13 · Score: 1
  
  I've made smaller molds (several feet) using both techniques. For this application milling the molds from a high density foam will be much cheaper. The 3D printing is just a gimmick. I've made molds using 3D printing ABS and one of the nice features is the epoxy resin doesn't stick well to the ABS. So you can just use Acetone to seal the printed surface and use it at a mold with very little prep.
  
  --
  I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
15. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by Mr+D+from+63 · 2016-02-09 12:39 · Score: 1
  
  According to Stratasys, for small runs and development, 3D-printed plastic molds are faster to make and cheaper than CNC-milled aluminium or steel molds.
  Well, of course SSS will claim that, after all they sell 3D printers. How about comparing molds of similar materials.
16. Re: Cheaper and Faster???? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 13:13 · Score: 0
  
  Remember that both the blade and its mold are large enough to be difficult to ship. The blades would be cheaper because one large 3d printer would allow making a variety of molds to produce blades in smaller facilities near where they are needed
17. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 15:49 · Score: 0
  
  Or a mold for the mold, so every time they need to create one, they can pour in a bunch of wax, pop it out, create the blade, and then melt the wax to create a new mold.
18. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 21:42 · Score: 0
  
  This is a pretty common small-scale industrial technique. It's also used in artisanal sex toys!
19. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by Hognoxious · 2016-02-09 22:18 · Score: 1
  
  A metamold?
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
20. Re:Cheaper and Faster???? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · 2016-02-10 03:16 · Score: 1
  
  You asked why 3D-printed molds are better than CNC-milled molds. I listed the reasons. They're lower cost, good for development and really short manufacturing runs. Apart from those scenarios, they're not better. They probably have limits on which types of plastic can be molded too.
  Nevertheless, it's quite impressive IMHO.
"in the US" by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 07:43 · Score: 0

As if EPA-free, OSHA-free, NRLB-free, low tax, zero-tariff Asian manufacturers are somehow magically incapable of operating 3-D printers. Between Ming Yang, United Power, Sulzon Group and Goldwind Asia is already the biggest wind power region, and the DOE's printer isn't going to change that. Nothing will change that until the trade agreements are fixed.
1. Re:"in the US" by Coren22 · 2016-02-10 01:35 · Score: 1
  
  China can make all the molds and blades they like, but until they figure out a way to actually ship 50 foot blades around, it really doesn't matter does it?
  
  --
  APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Re: Those Republicans... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 07:43 · Score: 0

They always stand against common sense.
Wow, /. is getting very liberal. There's more Republican bashing here now than on Microsoft NBC!
Re: Those Republicans... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 07:46 · Score: 0

Logical people have always stood against illogical people so it is no surprise.
Re: Those Republicans... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 07:52 · Score: 0

Maybe if the Republicans didn't keep moving further right every year since Reagan was president...
when you hear WHOOSHING, think helicopters... by Thud457 · 2016-02-09 07:54 · Score: 1

holy crap Seymore, that WHOOOSHING sound isn't coming from 3D printed windmill blades.

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the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Re: Those Republicans... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 07:56 · Score: 0

He was a Democrat until 1962 so of course those Republicans hate him.
Re: Those Republicans... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 07:56 · Score: 0

Raygun was an xian.
Re: Those Republicans... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 07:58 · Score: 0

And a character in the Star Wars prequal was named after him to make fun of him.
Re: Those Republicans... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 08:09 · Score: 0

Some of those logical folks are down in Venezuela right now, being terribly logical. Mostly they're standing in line though.
"mother of all" by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 08:18 · Score: 0

Really? Really??? The 2000s called, they want their catch-phrase back.
1. Re:"mother of all" by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 10:14 · Score: 0
  
  Did you warn them about Obama?
so only I caught this? by slashmydots · 2016-02-09 09:15 · Score: 1

Assuming this story isn't from Europe, are you sure they made a mold? Or did they make a mould. I suspect that perhaps they made a mould based on context. Mould: a hollow form or matrix for giving a particular shape to something in a molten or plastic state. Mold: a fungus that grows in the form of multicellular filaments called hyphae.
1. Re:so only I caught this? by Virtucon · 2016-02-09 11:12 · Score: 1
  
  if it's green and fungus like it's mold
  otherwise it's a mold.
  Wait, what?!?
  
  --
  Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
2. Re:so only I caught this? by bws111 · 2016-02-09 13:26 · Score: 1
  
  Let's consult a dictionary .
  Mold: a cavity in which a substance is shaped.
  Mould: A chiefly British variation of mold
Who *wouldn't* download a car? by mrex · 2016-02-09 09:19 · Score: 1

"SPA/BSA: You wouldn't download a car!"
"ORNL: Actually..."
1. Re:Who *wouldn't* download a car? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 11:28 · Score: 0
  
  I'm mildly disappointed that they still had to finish and hand-assemble so many of the constituent parts. I was half expecting everything to be 3D printed instead of just the body/frame, and maybe for it to come with a spare nuclear reactor in the trunk (this is ORNL, after all)...
2. Re:Who *wouldn't* download a car? by Coren22 · 2016-02-10 01:40 · Score: 1
  
  They made it, according to the article, as a test bed for electric car components. So, there isn't a heck of a lot more than just the frame and body. They didn't 3d print most of the suspension, or the tires, or the seats...
  
  --
  APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Re: Those Republicans... by TylerJWhit · 2016-02-09 12:15 · Score: 0

I've noticed the same thing. There's a large demographic of /.'ers who are literal, and if you oppose what they say, you'll get modded down.
Of course a new Republican government ... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 13:09 · Score: 0

Of couse a new Republican government will only be interested in how well these blades burn in coal-fired power plants, but I'm sure the technology could be used to make something SUV parts, bomb casings, or something like that ...
RTFA by thesupraman · 2016-02-09 13:39 · Score: 1

Perhaps, just perhaps, thats why they are printing the MOLDS not the blades?
But, I know thats a bit much to ask, actually comprehending what you read..
BTW, you also also wrong about strength, you can directly print in sintered titanium if you want (but this wont be..)
1. Re:RTFA by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-09 17:44 · Score: 0
  
  Poe's law in full effect.
2. Re:RTFA by Coren22 · 2016-02-10 01:28 · Score: 1
  
  You do realize that you are responding to someone who was responding to someone else right?
  AC:
  
  Why not 3D print the blades directly? I was told, in no uncertain terms, that 3D printing is the future, and anything else is just Luddite.
  I was told 3D printed houses, 3D printed cars,3D printed airplanes,3D printed Mars colonies,3D printed rockets,3D printed food,3D printed organs.
  Now all you have is a big mold? So what?
  
  But, I know thats a bit much to ask, actually comprehending what you read..
  Perhaps you should remove the log in your eye first...
  
  --
  APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Windmill? How quaint by wonkey_monkey · 2016-02-09 21:58 · Score: 1

Windmill Blade Molds 3D Printed By National Labs
That does sound a lot friendlier than "wind turbine."

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systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Re: Those Republicans... by Coren22 · 2016-02-10 01:19 · Score: 1

There's a large demographic of /.'ers who are literal,
Are they literally literal?

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APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Comment by WallyL · 2016-02-10 05:32 · Score: 1

Mother of all 3D printers, you say? So if we kill that one, no more "3D-printed" nonsense? Hm...
Re: Those Republicans... by TylerJWhit · 2016-02-10 09:44 · Score: 0

ROFL, I stepped away from the PC when I was writing this. Didn't realize I submitted it unfinished. I was going to say that there are a large demographic of /.'ers that are atheistic and liberal, and will definitely take any opportunity to take a shot or argue with those who don't agree.