With the current development of wind power, cost pressure has always been a problem facing the industry. At the just concluded 6th Asian Wind Power Conference, industry experts believed that the gradual replacement of the currently widely used epoxy resin with more cost-effective vinyl resin will become the development trend of wind blades in the future.
Xiao Shuangyin, an engineer at Shangwei Wind Power Materials Co., Ltd., pointed out that the most important advantage of replacing epoxy resin with vinyl resin is that it can reduce the cost of blades. The cost of the blades represents 20 to 30% of the cost of the entire electricity production device, the choice of materials is therefore crucial. Replacing epoxy resin with vinyl can reduce costs by around 10%.
The technical staff of Jinling DSM Resin Co., Ltd. of DSM Composite Resin Group said 10% is just a very conservative estimate. Once the main blade material is replaced, the surface protective layer supporting products such as gelcoat will also be changed accordingly, and the saving effect will be just as considerable. Additionally, casting costs represent a high proportion in blade production. Post-curing and other processing are not required after replacing the material, which will greatly improve the use efficiency of the mold. Taking a 1.5MW blade as an example, the mold cost is about 3-4 million yuan. It takes about two days to produce a blade using epoxy resin as the base material, but only one day using vinyl resin.
She also pointed out another advantage of vinyl resin replacing epoxy resin, which is good craftsmanship. Vinyl resin can directly replaceepoxy resin without changing the original design of the epoxy resin casting structure. At the same time, since vinyl resin is similar to unsaturated polyester resin, another main material used for blades, we can also learn from the existing mature technology to prepare blades with unsaturated resins. In addition, vinyl resin has the mechanical properties of epoxy resin, and various performance indicators such as fatigue resistance and rigidity can fully meet the design requirements. Additionally, composite materials are currently used on wind turbine blades. The performance indicators of vinyl resin, fiberglass and other materials, after reasonable matching, are not inferior to those of epoxy system composite materials.
Xiao Shuangyin also affirmed the performance of vinyl resin. Hetold reporters that vinyl resin has already been widely used in ships and yachts, and its various properties have been confirmed by many parties.
It is understood that although vinyl resin has great advantages, the development of its applications is still in its early stages. Domestic and foreign companies are actively conducting research on the application of vinyl resin to blades. Limited by various factors, it will take some time to achieve truly large-scale commercial production. However, many blade manufacturers such as Danish Elm Glass Fiber Products Co., Ltd. and AVIC Huiteng Company began to consider or start applying vinyl resin.
Kebao Chemical specializes in vinyl resin and unsaturated polyester resin