Two years ago, Pontis Engineering introduced a new welding solution for fully thermoplastic rotor blades. The engineering company has now found a welding solution that can be used in existing epoxy designs.
Pontis Engineering has developed a technology in which prefab thermoplastic welding units are implemented in the epoxy shell. These units not only enable a welded connection, but also enable that a sharper trailing edge and a more compact connection can be realised.In conventional rotor blade production bonding paste is commonly used. Pontis applied its new construction method to a test blade component and found a number of significant advantages, including:
- Increased reliability
- Reduced cycle time for bonding operation (up to 90%)
- Reduced total workload (app. 5%)
- Increased bond strength
- Reduced blade mass (app. 3-5%)