Flexible balsa wood panel, a rotor blade, a wind turbine and a method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11401912-B2
Application number	US-201916249106-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 16, 2019
Priority date	Jan 24, 2018
Publication date	Aug 2, 2022
Grant date	Aug 2, 2022

Abstract

A flexible balsa wood panel for a rotor blade of a wind turbine, including a plurality of balsa wood modules and a polymer film which is attached to a surface of each balsa wood module to connect the balsa wood modules together is provided. The flexible balsa wood panel has the following advantages. An adhesion area of the polymer film is significantly larger than that of a glass fiber mesh. This in turn reduces the risk of balsa wood modules falling off during handling the flexible balsa wood panel. A polymer film with a high melting temperature relative to a maximum blade curing temperature can be selected in order to avoid curing process induced delaminations. Furthermore, due to the polymer film attached to the first surface, a more uniform adhesion may be achieved compared to a currently used glass fiber mesh.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A flexible balsa wood panel for a rotor blade of a wind turbine, comprising a plurality of balsa wood modules and a polymer film which is attached to a surface of each balsa wood module to connect the balsa wood modules together, wherein the polymer film includes a pressure-sensitive adhesive configured to adhere to the surface by heatless pressure applied to the pressure-sensitive adhesive.

2. The flexible balsa wood panel according to claim 1 , wherein the polymer film is unreinforced.

3. The flexible balsa wood panel according to claim 1 , wherein the polymer film is monolayered or multilayered.

4. The flexible balsa wood panel according to claim 1 , wherein wood fibers of the balsa wood modules are arranged perpendicular to the surface of the balsa wood modules.

5. The flexible balsa wood panel according to claim 1 , wherein the polymer film comprises an adhesive face which is attached to the surface of each balsa wood module and a non-adhesive face which faces away from the surface of each balsa wood module.

6. The flexible balsa wood panel according to claim 1 , wherein the balsa wood modules are arranged in a matrix pattern.

7. The flexible balsa wood panel according to claim 1 , wherein the balsa wood modules are rectangular or square-shaped.

8. The flexible balsa wood panel according to claim 1 , wherein between the balsa wood modules are arranged first cuts and second cuts, and wherein the first cuts are arranged perpendicular to the second cuts.

9. A rotor blade for a wind turbine, comprising at least one flexible balsa wood panel according to claim 1 .

10. A wind turbine, comprising at least one flexible balsa wood panel according to claim 1 or at least one rotor blade according to claim 9 .

11. A method for producing a flexible balsa wood panel for a rotor blade of a wind turbine, comprising the steps of:
a) providing a rigid balsa wood panel,
b) attaching a polymer film to a surface of the rigid balsa wood panel, and
c) cutting the rigid balsa wood panel into a plurality of balsa wood modules to obtain the flexible balsa wood panel,
wherein the polymer film includes a pressure-sensitive adhesive configured to adhere to the surface by heatless pressure applied to the pressure-sensitive adhesive.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein in step b) the polymer film is attached to the surface of the rigid balsa wood panel by applying pressure.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the pressure is applied by a roller.

14. The method according to claim 11 , wherein in step b) the polymer film is attached to the surface of the rigid balsa wood panel by directly extruding the polymer film onto the surface.

15. A wind turbine, comprising a rotor blade, wherein the rotor blade comprises at least one flexible balsa wood panel, wherein the flexible balsa wood panel includes a plurality of balsa wood modules and a polymer film which is attached to a surface of each balsa wood module to connect the balsa wood modules together, wherein the polymer film includes a pressure-sensitive adhesive configured to adhere to the surface by heatless pressure applied to the pressure-sensitive adhesive.

16. A flexible balsa wood panel for a rotor blade of a wind turbine, comprising a plurality of balsa wood modules and a polymer film which is attached to a surface of each balsa wood module to connect the balsa wood modules together, wherein the polymer film is fiberless and a polymer material of the polymer film has adhesive properties such that the polymer film is configured to adhere to the surface without any additional adhesive material.

17. A wind turbine comprising the flexible balsa wood panel for a rotor blade of claim 16 .

Assignees

• Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy
• Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy As

Inventors

• Stecher Harald
• Wernlund Thomas Bro

Classifications

• F05B2280/4002

  Cellulosic materials, e.g. wood · CPC title

• B32B2603/00

  Vanes, blades, propellers, rotors with blades · CPC title

• B32B3/266

  characterised by an apertured layer, the apertures going through the whole thickness of the layer, e.g. expanded metal, perforated layer, slit layer regular cells B32B3/12 · CPC title

• B32B2262/067

  Wood fibres · CPC title

• F05B2230/31

  Layer deposition · CPC title