REpower and Alerion CleanPower Sign Contract for 44 Megawatt Wind Farm Project in Italy

REpower Systems SE and Alerion CleanPower Spa, an Italian-based renewable energy company, signed a contract for a wind project in the South of Italy. REpower will deliver 13 3.4M104 wind turbines to San Marco in Lamis, a 44 megawatt (MW) wind farm situated north-east of Foggia. The turbines will have a rated output of 3.4 megawatts and a hub height of 80 meters each. REpower is responsible for supplying, installing and commissioning the turbines. The company will also provide service in line with a twelve years service agreement with Alerion CleanPower.

San Marco in Lamis wind farm is located close to REpower Italia’s main service center near Foggia and will be maintained directly from there. The Italian-based subsidiary of REpower Systems SE will start construction as early as the fall of 2011.

Andreas Nauen, CEO of REpower Systems SE, is pleased that REpower’s 3.XM series is well accepted on the Italian market: “This is the second contract for the 3.4M104 in Italy. It confirms the excellent market-fit of this turbine and strengthens our market presence in Italy.”

Carlo Schiapparelli, Managing Director of REpower Italia S.r.l., comments, “We are delighted to be working with Alerion again. Our first project, Ordona, with 17 REpower MM92 turbines was completed in 2007. This second project confirms that Alerion – an important client for REpower Italia with a high level of renewable energy expertise – regards us as reliable supplier.”

Lamborghini and Callaway Teams Up to Create a Super Strong, Lightweight Golf Club

Lamborghini and Callaway have teamed up to create a super strong, lightweight golf club. Using forged composite to make the Razr Hawk R11 (the same material used in the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento Concept); this material is a lighter, stronger, and more precise version of traditional woven carbon fiber or titanium. Boasting a higher threshold for standing up to extreme conditions, this composite material features 500,000 intertwined turbo static fibers per inch.

Offering an improved overall performance, the Razr Hawk R11 is sleek and polished, not to mention lighter and stronger. In fact, tests have shown that this club can hit a tee shot of up to six yards longer than what its predecessor, the R11, could. And if you’re at all competitive, that six yards could mean the difference between first and second place.

BEFUT to Build Carbon Fiber Composite Materials Manufacturing Plant

BEFUT International Co., Ltd. a developer, manufacturer and distributor of wire and cable products in China, has apprised that it has been selected as an anchor client in the Puwan New Area development zone, where it will build a new facility to develop carbon fiber composite materials. Puwan New Area, a 1045.6-kilometer economic zone, was created for the purpose of fostering research and development projects and to serve as a headquarters for technology innovation within China. The economic zone is located near the major port of Dalian. In a highly competitive process, the government selected BEFUT as one of its anchor tenants and is considered one of the ten key projects within the area.

Mr. Hongbao Cao, Chairman and CEO, commented, "We are pleased to enter this agreement with the Puwan New Area government and to situate development of our carbon fiber composite material project within this economic zone. The carbon fiber project will occupy a 300,000 square meter facility and ultimately we believe this facility will be able to produce 100,000 kilometers per year of high-pressure carbon fiber composite wire. This would equate to over $1.5 billion US (10.3 billion RMB) per year, once this facility is operating at full capacity."

Research at UC3M Improves the Bolted Joints in Airplanes

A research project at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) that analyses the bolted joints used in the aeronautical industry has determined the optimum force that should be applied so that they may better withstand the variations in temperature that aircraft are subjected to. This advance could improve airplane design, weight and safety. (OIC/UC3M).

The researchers have analyzed the performance of these bolted joints in aeronautical structures in which mechanical elements (screws, nuts, washers) are used to join parts that are made of composite materials. Specifically, the scientists at UC3M have analyzed the influence of bolt torque (the force with which the bolt is tightened) and temperature, which varies from -50ºC, when the airplane is flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters, to 90ºC, the temperature to which a bolted joint may be exposed when it is close to a heat source. To do this, they developed a numerical model and analyzed the behavior of these joints under different conditions. "The main conclusion that we drew is that the torque of each joint should be estimated taking into account the range of temperatures to which the plate is going to be subjected, because current industry standards that are applied to determine torque do not take this effect into account", explains one of the authors of the study, Professor Enrique Barbero, head of the Advanced Materials Mechanics research group of the Department of Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis at UC3M.

The main type of failure that they found was the crushing of carbon fiber plates against the shaft of the bolt, which is made more likely by low temperatures or by low torque levels. "At -50ºC the volume of the panels is reduced and the effect of the torque is diminished, so the joints that are subjected to these temperatures, such as those that form part of the fuselage and the external structure of the airplane, should have a greater torque so that its effect is maintained even under very low temperatures", affirms Professor Carlos Santiuste. The opposite effect can also be dangerous, the researchers point out, because when temperatures are high or when the torque is too great, the panels made of composite materials may be damaged by being compressed between the head of the bolt and the washer.

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Acoustic Guitar Made of Carbon fiber and Epoxy Resin Developed

John Decker, has developed an acoustic guitar made of carbon fiber and epoxy resin. He started a company called RainSong Graphite Guitars that produces about 700 all-composite guitars a year.

Creating a guitar sans wood that would be durable and sound good was a challenge for Decker and his colleagues. The "sound" of a guitar depends on what the soundboard - the top butternut squash-shaped panel - is made of. Traditionally, soundboards are made from a wood like spruce or cedar. Decker and his colleagues experimented first with other materials like fiberglass, which was too heavy, and plastic, which was too flexible. They settled eventually on graphite because its fiber structure was similar to that of wood's and would hopefully mimic the tonal qualities of wood. They experimented with adding other fibers and the proper amount of resin until they got a soundboard that worked.



On the RainSong website, Decker uses physics to explain what gives the RainSong guitar its unique "carbon sound". The soundboards on guitars transfer the vibrations of the strings into sound which then resonates in the body. For wood, about half of those vibrations are absorbed and turned into heat instead of sound. This effect, called damping, is heightened at higher vibration frequencies.

Graphite, however, doesn't have the same damping properties as wood and the higher notes don't fade away as quickly on a graphite guitar as they do on a wooden one. The graphite is nearly linear and each of the frequencies is damped at almost the same rate. This results in louder treble on the graphite guitar. The linear damping also gives the guitar purer tones by reducing the mixing of harmonics that happens when playing a wooden guitar.

Multifunctional Self-Healing Composites Made Using Carbon Nanotubes

According to researchers from Applied Sciences Inc., carbon nanotubes are ideal materials to pair with nano-sized self-healing capsules in thermoset composites. Applied Sciences is exploring this technology under a NASA Phase I SBIR program targeted at developing self healing composite technology using Pyrograf III carbon nanotubes.

Polymer matrix composites offering multiple advantages of lightweight, high strength and stiffness, vibration damping, and corrosion resistance are becoming widely used in aerospace and commercial applications. A primary weakness of structural composites is damage from impact, where resulting micro-cracks can propagate to allow delamination and/or fiber breakage of the composite, resulting in loss of the excellent physical properties for which composites are selected. Incorporation of carbon nanotubes into the polymer matrix, resulting in a significant increase of the composite interphase, has been shown to mitigate micro-crack formation. Carbon nanotube additives in the matrix have also demonstrated improvement in interlaminar mechanical properties, thermal and electrical conductivity, vibration damping, and fire retardancy. A separate promising tool for addressing damage from impact is the emerging class of self healing materials having the ability to heal micro-cracks and restore mechanical and corrosion resistant properties of the composite. In the awarded effort, a combination of these tools will be investigated to determine the feasibility of incorporating self-healing properties, while concurrently producing multifunctional improvements in interlaminar shear strength, modulus, fracture toughness, transport properties, fire retardancy and vibration damping.

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LM Wind Power Announces 73.5 m Turbine Blade

This new blade will be the longest composite blade structure in the world at 73.5 meters creating an impressive swept area with a rotor diameter of 150 meters.

The LM 73.5P wind turbine blades will be installed on Alstom’s 6 MW wind turbines offshore, mainly in European waters, where the giant blades will travel at the speed of more than 320 km/h in order to generate green power equivalent to the yearly requirements of over 6000 European households



Vice President, Product Development at LM Wind Power, Jan Kristiansen is looking forward to being able to present the first prototype blade in Denmark already at the end of this year. “The size of these impressive structures has more than doubled over the past decade alone, and although this has of course demanded the development of new materials, design and technology along the way, the new 73.5 meter blade is built on our progressive accumulation of know-how. This ensures that even though it is more than ten meters longer than our recent world record blade, it is still based on a proven concept.”

The company says it is in discussions with a number of Asian wind turbine manufacturers about making blades longer than 80 m.




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SABIC Signs Technology Agreement with Montefibre for Fully Integrated World Scale Carbon Fiber Project in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation apprised that it has signed a technology agreement with Montefibre S.p.A (Montefibre) granting SABIC and its affiliates an extensive international licence on carbon fiber technology developed by Montefibre. SABIC will first use the technology for a new carbon fiber plant to be built in Saudi Arabia. This plant demonstrates how SABIC continues to add innovative new specialty products to its offering. It will enable SABIC to serve the growing demand for carbon fiber and composites in such fast-growing markets as alternative energy, transportation and infrastructure.

SABIC and Montefibre also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the companies to study the feasibility of a new carbon fiber production plant in Spain to be integrated into Montefibre’s existing acrylic fiber production site—and thus allowing SABIC to accelerate product development and material qualification activities with customers and end-users.

Once complete, the carbon fiber project is expected to establish a domestic supply of more than 3,000 metric tons of industrial grade carbon fiber to serve emerging local markets in the Middle East as well as international markets.

The project will also include the creation of a new carbon fiber product development center and composite plastics application development capabilities at the SABIC Plastics Application Development Center (SPADC) which is currently under construction at the Riyadh Techno Valley research complex at King Saud University. Both the carbon fiber production plant and the SPADC capabilities are aligned with Saudi Arabia’s National Industrial Clusters Development Program to grow and diversify the manufacturing sector in Saudi Arabia.

Vaupell Acquires Composite Products Supplier, Russell Plastics Technology

Vaupell Holdings, a global provider of hi-tech plastics assemblies and products for the defense, aerospace and medical markets, has acquired the New York-based Russell Plastics Technology Company. Russell Plastics supplies composite plastics products and assemblies to the military and aerospace markets, while Vaupell is a portfolio company of Miami-based H.I.G. Capital, a global private investment firm.

The Russell acquisition adds composite manufacturing capabilities, tools and services to Vaupell’s existing offering of products and services. It also expands Vaupell’s military and rotorcraft markets.

The CEO of Vaupell, Joe Jahn said that the demand for structurally tough and lightweight composite parts is growing, particularly in the defense and aerospace markets.

Russell Plastics Technology’s President, Alexander Bozza, and other key management members will continue their current roles. Bozza will also join the Vaupell board.

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Siemens to Invest EUR150 Million to Expand Wind Power Business

Over the next two years Siemens is to invest over EUR150 million in further expansion of its wind business. Two new Research and Development (R&D) Centers are to be set up in the Danish towns of Brande and Aalborg. In addition, Siemens will match the capacity of its Danish production plants to the growing demand for offshore wind turbines in Europe expand office spaces at its headquarters in Brande to accommodate the growth in number of employees. Starting 2012, the highly successful Offshore Business will have a new Center of Competence in the Danish city of Vejle.

In 2010, Siemens opened two new production facilities in China and in the U.S. The Business Unit Siemens Wind Power already operates centers of competence around the world in order to enhance the research and development activities in this field. They are located in Taastrup, Denmark, Boulder, USA, Sheffield and Keele, United Kingdom, Aachen, Germany and The Hague, The Netherlands. "Our investments in R&D and the extension of production facilities will pave the road for our global expansion," said Jens-Peter Saul, CEO of the Siemens Wind Power Business Unit. "We will continue to expand our global production network and to regionalize our sales and project management functions to get closer to the customer. Further factories are planned in the U.K., in Canada, Russia and India," added Saul.

"The investments in our new R&D Centers will strengthen our leading position in wind turbine technology," said Henrik Stiesdal, Chief Technology Officer of the Siemens Wind Power Business Unit. "Through the investment in the new R&D test centers, we will be able to thoroughly investigate and verify new products and solutions like the Direct Drive and Quantum Blade technologies before they are implemented in the field. This will help us to ensure that we keep our unmatched track record in reliability for our next generation of large wind turbines."