SA Plastics
LATEST ISSUE | SUBSCRIBE | NEWSLETTER | EVENTS | LINKS | PLASTICS DIRECTORY | RATE CARD | ABOUT | CONTACT
» Dec 2011 / Jan 2012 (VOLUME 9 NUMBER 6)
 

Massive mould for wind turbine blades

ONE of the largest moulds for composite production ever used in South Africa has been installed at Isivunguvungu Wind Energy Converter in Cape Town.

With its two halves weighing a whopping 44 tons, the mould is to be used for the production of 50m wind turbine blades.   Each blade will weigh approximately 12 tons, with the glass fibre reinforcement and resin each constituting about half that.

The mould was built in China for Gurit of Switzerland, a leading global supplier of advanced composite materials for the wind energy market.    Gurit supplies both infusion and prepreg blade technology as well as all the relevant materials needed for building composite blades.

Isivunguvungu (Zulu for ‘big storm’) Wind Energy is the brainchild of Dr Michael Kast, whose was previously involved in composite boat manufacture (he designed the yacht ‘Broomstick’ which won the Cape-to-Rio race in 1993).   Kast has been engaged in the wind energy sector for the past 10 years and managed to assemble the group behind the Isivunguvungu venture, which plans to manufacture about three of the blades a week.    About 125 layers of glassfibre are used for each half of the blade and laid up in the mould, with the resin then added by vacuum infusion.

The halves are then joined with an adhesive supplied via a Dopag dispensing system.

Daunting specs are the order of the day here: at maximum rpm, the tip of the blade will revolve at around 300kph.   At optimum performance, each turbine will generate about 2.5 megawatts of power a day.

Isivunguvungu operates from a large warehouse in the Cape Town harbour, where it will be supplying the wind energy market from.  

www.i-wec.co.za

www.gurit.com

  Material supply: It’s a complex field best left to the specialists
Material is at the heart of our industry, but it’s surprising how many people are unaware about the complexity of procedures involved in securing reliable supply.
Read more...
 
  AS Plastics signs off 160-litre blow moulder for Eskom project
AS Plastics Machinery Suppliers’ Bob Austen and son Douglas recently visited China to sign off a 160-litre blow moulding machine at Ziqiang Machinery in Taizhou, China.
Read more...
 
 
  Brightest star in carbon blacks
Algorax, the carbon black manufacturer, is now known as Orion Engineered Carbons, following the transfer of Evonik’s global carbon black business to a fully independent company, Orion Engineered Carbons.
Read more...
 
  Mpact wins overall Gold Pack Trophy
Mpact won the overall Gold Pack Trophy at the prestigious 2011 Institute of Packaging SA (IPSA) Gold Pack Awards, hosted in Cape Town on 25 October for its RAPPET™ 187ml Burgundy wine bottle.
Read more...
 
 
  Family affair!
There are many family-run businesses in the SA polymer industries, but few have managed to keep their daughters in the company long-term. Not so in the case of Walter Hintze of Hiwalt of Germiston.
Read more...
 
  Size does matter ... when talking fibres
Lomotek Polymers, the sales channel for the Lomold Group in South Africa, recently unveiled their new product range of Lomotex™ long fibre reinforced thermoplastics to the South African plastics industry.
Read more...
 
 
  From ‘waste’ to ‘virgin’
Spunchem International of Durban celebrated recently: its use of one of New Generation Recycling’s ‘One-Step’ recycling systems over the past 10 years has enabled it to reduce production scrap to extremely low levels.
Read more...
 
  Borch team visit Cabletech
Cabletech Marketing was visited by representatives of its principal, Borch of China. Sales of Borch’s range of injection moulding machines in South Africa have exceeded expectations over the last year.
Read more...
 
 
  SABIC celebrates first year in SA
SABIC South Africa hosted seminars in Durban and Johannesburg in September, almost exactly a year after the global polymers business had opened its office in SA.
Read more...
 
  Italian flair!
Mouldplas have been awarded the agency for Italian Automa bottle blowing machines in South Africa.
Read more...
 
 
 
  ‘Famox’ – Fast mould exchange system from Engel
With the aim of further increasing the level of efficiency at its customers' plants, Engel has extended its product portfolio to include an automatic mould changing system.
Read more...
 
  Kabra Gloucester unveils 5-layer blown film system
Kabra Gloucester Engineering of India, a joint venture company with Gloucester Engineering of the USA, unveiled its first ‘KAGE’ 5-layer blown film system at the company’s headquarters in Dunetha-Daman in October.
Read more...
 
 
  Reifenhäuser celebrates 100th anniversary
In 1911, locksmith Anton Reifenhäuser laid the cornerstone of Reifenhäuser, a company that ranks among the worldwide leading technology companies in the plastics machinery industry today.
Read more...
 
  Separating bio bottles? No problem!
S+S Separation & Sorting Technology GmbH showed its latest sorting systems for PET recycling at the PETpoint 2011 trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany, in November.
Read more...
 
 
  High visibility
The new Ultradur® High Gloss B4570 was one of the numerous new engineering resins from BASF which made their appearance at the trade fair FAKUMA 2011 in October in Germany.
Read more...
 
  Greenhouses need sun protection too
Increasingly, conventional glass greenhouses are being replaced by greenhouses consisting of simple frames covered with plastic films and combining lower cost with greater flexibility.
Read more...
 
 
  Innovation shapes the future of tubing
Polyvanced has aligned its tubing technology to permanent innovative change.
Read more...
 
  Macrolex is first choice
Macrolex colorants from Lanxess have proven themselves in the plastics sector: The U.S. legal firm Keller & Heckman LLP has certified that Eastman Tritan coloured with Macrolex colorants meets the requirements of the United States FDA.
Read more...
 
 
  Solar shading sophistication
New solar shading panels made from lightweight, durable Lexan Exell D polycarbonate (PC) sheet from SABIC’s Innovative Plastics strategic business unit, are making a major contribution to energy efficiency and comfort at the new flagship City of Westminster College in central London.
Read more...
 
  Clear cups
Turkish sheet extrusion and thermoforming company, SEM Plastik, is using a newly formulated polypropylene to fulfil an important contract for high-clarity, high-stiffness PP cups for milkshakes at a global fast-food company in the country.
Read more...
 
 
 
LATEST ISSUE | SUBSCRIBE | NEWSLETTER | EVENTS | LINKS | PLASTICS DIRECTORY | RATE CARD | ABOUT | CONTACT