Americanmachinist 2308 87444am060911no00000060064
Americanmachinist 2308 87444am060911no00000060064
Americanmachinist 2308 87444am060911no00000060064
Americanmachinist 2308 87444am060911no00000060064
Americanmachinist 2308 87444am060911no00000060064

FiberSIM Picked to Develop Composite Wind Turbine Blades

June 9, 2011
Nordex selects Vistagy to streamline design-to-manufacturing process
The industry increasingly prefers bigger, more complex wind blades so they’re choosing products to help them develop high-performance, durable structures. Nordex chose Vistagy's FiberSIM composites engineering software.

Vistagy Inc., a developer of industry-specific engineering software, will supply its FiberSIM® product to wind-turbine manufacturer Nordex, to streamline its entire design-to-manufacturing process. Nordex is using FiberSIM to develop detailed ply designs, accurate flat patterns, and manufacturing output, and complete documentation for the engineering release. >

Nodex supplies some of the world’s largest wind turbines for onshore applications. Its product range includes one of the largest series of wind power systems in the world (N80/N90/N100, 2,500 kW), and more than 1,500 of which have been produced to date. It has installed over 4,400 turbines worldwide with a capacity in excess of 6,600 MW.

FiberSIM will allow Nordex to enhance the automation of its product development process and optimize assembly glue gaps. Nordex calls FiberSIM a “powerful tool” for composite design and manufacturing it uses within the Creo Elements/Pro (previously Pro/ENGINEER) CAD system.

FiberSIM is fully integrated with the PTC Creo Elements/Pro, Dassault Systmes CATIA, and Siemens NX CAD systems.

“Transferring data between design and analysis can be extremely time-consuming,” explained Nordex Rotor Blade Div. chief designer Hendrik Klein, “ but during the testing phase we recognized that if we had a design tool that had a seamless interface to our CAE analysis tools, it would enable us to significantly reduce the product development cycle.

“FiberSIM also enhances the automation of our development processes, helps us improve blade quality, and alleviates time-consuming reworks in the factory,” accoding to Klein.

Dr. Olivier Guillermin, director of product & market strategy for Vistagy, noted: “As the wind industry moves toward bigger and more complex blade designs, we’re seeing a maturation of the wind blade engineering process worldwide, and Vistagy’s products and services are playing a key role in that development.”

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