Newly established German Voodin Blade Technology GmbH contacted WINDnovation with the idea to make rotor blades for the next generation wind turbines mainly from wood. While it sounded strange in the beginning, the engineers looked a little deeper and found charming aspects:
德国Voodin Blade 技术股份有限公司是一家刚刚加入风电行业的新公司。不久前，WINDnovation有幸收到来自Voodin Blade 的合作邀请，共同进行由木材为主要材料的下一代风电叶片设计工作。起初，这一想法似乎有些出格，但在我们的工程师进行了进一步研究后，发现这一想法的如下亮点：
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Recycling, one of the biggest headaches of glass or carbon fiber reinforced rotor blades, will not be an issue anymore.
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The relative stiffness (E-modulus/density) of the selected wood is nearly identical to UD glass fiber.
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The structural damping properties are much better than for composites.
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The raw material is very available at a low price.
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The final surface will be prepared by positive milling, so no moulds will be needed anymore. This is of special interest for the production of replacement blades where in many times production moulds are simply not available anymore.
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玻纤或碳纤增强材料风电叶片的一大不足之处是其不可循环性，而木制叶片则可以解决这一问题；
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所选用木材的相对刚度（E-模量/密度）几乎与UD玻纤的刚度一样；
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所选木材的结构阻尼性能远优于复合材料；
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木材原材料供应充足且价格相对较低；
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叶片表面后处理使用顺铣，因此叶片生产将不再需要模具。这一点对于更换老旧叶片非常重要，因为很多已经停产的叶片，其生产模具已经不存在或不可用。
For demonstrating the technology, currently a 20m blade is under development, which will run through all production steps, which are expected to be suitable for manufacturing of very large blades in the Multi-MW class. According to the plans, a fully sensor equipped first set will be installed in summer 2021 in Germany and be operated and closely monitored for at least one year.
作为该技术的示范项目，我们目前正在开发一款20米长的叶片，开发工作涵盖所有的生产步骤。该技术预计可以适用于制造兆瓦级的超大型叶片。根据计划，Voodin Blade将于2021年夏季在德国安装并运行第一套完全配备传感器的使用木制叶片的风电机组，后续并进行为期至少一年的密切监测。
It shall be mentioned that not all questions with regard to rotor blades made from wood are solved:
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Selection and application of the surface coating to make the blades last 20 or 25 years will need some research.
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To protect the leading edges from erosion will need same research and potentially tests.
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According to the current estimate the blades will be some 20% heavier than their glass fiber equivalent, some of the load increase resulting from the mass might be compensated by the higher structural damping, this is subject to further investigations.
当然，对于木制叶片技术，也还存在一些尚未解决的问题：
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使用何种涂层材料以及如何使用才能使木制叶片可以运行20或25年还需进一步研究；
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前缘防侵蚀保护同样需要进一步研究或测试；
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根据目前的估计，同一款叶片，木质叶片的重量将比玻纤制叶片约重20%，由质量增加带来的载荷增加可能会由更高的结构阻尼补偿，这一点还有待进一步研究。
Voodin Blade Technology and WINDnovation will closely cooperate on finding good solutions to make the wooden blade technology mature. We will to publish updates every now and then talking about the latest achievements!
Voodin Blade Technology与WINDnovation将继续开展密切合作，寻找最佳解决方案，使木制叶片技术走向成熟。我们也会不定时更新我们的研发进展，分享我们的最新成果！
