Dear Composites Institute Members,
On behalf of the Collaborative Composite Solutions Corporation (CCS)/IACMI-The Composites Institute team, I want to thank you for your time last week in Colorado. Your dedication to innovation is a key driver enabling manufacturing competitiveness.
As a member-driven organization, we pride ourselves in partnering with you to understand and align our efforts to meet the needs of industry. Since November, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with many of you to get a better understanding of your organizational challenges and discuss IACMI’s role in addressing those challenges as your research, development and workforce partner. Before the official meetings kicked off in Colorado, I hosted a brunch to provide another opportunity to connect in person. Nearly thirty of you joined for the pre-event networking and I could not be more pleased with the resulting dialogue and momentum.
Over 150 people joined us Tuesday, January 31 as IACMI’s Wind Technology Area Director, Derek Berry, unveiled a newly-created nine-meter wind blade at the ribbon-cutting event at National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Composites Manufacturing Education and Technology (CoMET) Facility at the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC). This 10,000-square-foot facility paves the way for accelerated manufacturing and is the result of a funding partnership involving NREL, IACMI-The Composites Institute and the Advanced Industries program administered by the State of Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). The CoMET facility expedites manufacturing by enabling researchers to design, prototype, test and manufacturing composite wind turbine blades and other components in one place. This location was headquarters for the innovative prototype wind blade fabricated and assembled over the last few weeks. Commercialization of this blade could speed production times, reduce manufacture cost and provide stronger, more energy-efficient blades for the United States.
This project is a perfect example of IACMI’s strength bringing together partners representing the entire supply chain to demonstrate the latest technologies to address cost and performance of composites.
More than 300 attendees representing a record-breaking 31 different states joined us for the semi-annual Members Meeting in Denver. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper welcomed attendees and presentations were provided by Siemens Energy, Local Motors, Dupont Polymers, IACMI HQ, The U.S. Department of Energy, State of Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade and many others. Projects and workforce development were two key areas of interest for meeting attendees and our team will be providing several future announcements in both respective areas of the organization. Our team is continuing to improve our process to increase the speed and participation level on projects. As a reminder, project proposals are being accepted on an ongoing basis. Contact projects@iacmi.org if you have any questions.
In addition to the wind blade prototype, meeting participants had the opportunity to preview another recent IACMI prototype success- a small scale joint project to evaluate performance of innovative iTherm products developed by IACMI HQ, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The orange ice scraper prototypes created in the UTK Fibers and Composites Facility and Engineering Annex demonstrate manufacturing tooling innovations and partnerships driving economic impact.
I continued to be impressed by team. Whether it’s working tirelessly with industry partners to get a prototype built in time for our Winters Members Meeting, building a members-only digital portal or navigating all the hurdles required to get the blade moved from the Boulder area to downtown Denver at the Hyatt Regency lobby in time for the meeting kick off, the strength of the organization is rooted with the team. Our organizational impact would not be possible without the commitment of our team and key partners including the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office, the Advanced Industries program administered by the State of Colorado's Office of Economic Development and International Trade and others.
Our collaborations are making history. Thank you for your continued partnership and momentum.
Sincerely,
Bryan G. Dods
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IACMI teams with industry to unveil unique combination of technologies in nine-meter wind turbine blade
Knoxville, TN, January 31, 2017— The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), a Manufacturing USA institute driven by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), will unveil an advanced technology prototype wind blade during the Winter IACMI members meeting February 1-2 in Denver, Colorado. The nine- meter long blade was fabricated at IACMI’s Wind Technology Area in the Denver, Colorado area. Commercialization of the wind blade prototype created could speed production times, reduce manufacture cost, and provide stronger, more energy-efficient blades for the United States.
A large team of eleven industrial partners, including Arkema Inc., Johns Manville, TPI Composites Inc., Huntsman Polyurethanes, Strongwell, DowAksa USA, Chomarat North America, Composites One, SikaAxson, Creative Foam and Chem-Trend, provided materials and on site fabrication support for blade component manufacturing and assembly. Pultruded spar caps were fabricated at Strongwell in Bristol, Virginia and shipped to Colorado for incorporation into the blade shells. The project was led by IACMI’s Wind Technology Area, based in the Denver, Colorado area , with support from IACMI Headquarters, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office, and the Advanced Industries Program administered by the Colorado Office of Economic Trade and Development (OEDIT).
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“This project is a perfect example of IACMI’s strength bringing together partners representing the entire industry supply chain to demonstrate the latest technologies to address cost and performance of composites,” said Bryan Dods, IACMI-The Composites Institute CEO. “Wind energy OEMs are showing great interest in the current research and development work and we anticipate continued collaboration to mature these technologies.” Read more...
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