(ISU: Ames, IA) -- It’s not easy to make machines that convert wind to electricity. Just consider the turbine blades that spin in the wind: a single blade can be 40 to 50 meters long and 10,000 to 15,000 pounds. It has to be built within millimeters of specifications. It has to be built to withstand 20 years of harsh conditions in the field. And it has to be built to handle speeds up to 200 miles per hour at the tip.

Iowa State University (ISU) researchers are working with researchers from TPI Composites, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based company that operates a turbine blade factory in Newton, Iowa, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to improve the process currently used to manufacture turbine blades.

The researchers’ work is supported by a three-year, $6.3 million project called the “Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Initiative.” One third of the project’s funding is from the Iowa Power Fund, a state program to advance energy innovation and independence. TPI Composites and the U.S. Department of Energy are also providing equal shares of funding.

 …