Wind energy

How can you increase the performance of your wind turbines?
With us, quite easily. 

The energy tran­si­tion is not just creating an increased demand for wind turbines, but also the need for greater perfor­mance per unit. The resulting chal­lenges are numerous. One answer is to opti­mise the highly stressed fibre composite compo­nents. This not only ensures greater output from the turbine, it also increases its service life. In this way, you can increase your compet­i­tive­ness and make an impor­tant contri­bu­tion to saving resources. With us, you can imple­ment the tech­nology of fibre composite struc­tures in the best possible way, as we have devel­oped inno­v­a­tive solu­tions for your chal­lenges.

  1. higher perfor­mance due to larger, highly durable compo­nents
  2. lower running costs thanks to longer-lasting compo­nents
  3. adher­ence to sched­ules and budgets

Our solu­tion compe­ten­cies

Our formula for success in inspiring solu­tions is an expe­ri­enced team that develops compo­nents with passion and curiosity using the latest tools and methods – simu­lating and then opti­mising their prop­er­ties.

Solu­tion 1:
We do highly stress­able compo­nents.

Thanks to our expe­ri­ence from over 150 fibre composite projects, we know how to find and exploit poten­tial for increasing the load-bearing capacity of large compo­nents. In order to achieve economic results, we not only use our simu­la­tion exper­tise and calcu­la­tion automa­tion, we also develop our own calcu­la­tion tools to find the best solu­tion for you.

In this way, we realise the opti­mi­sa­tion of your compo­nent in terms of its weight, stiff­ness or strength. In this way, we make the desired increase in perfor­mance of the system possible while main­taining the quality and improving the price/​performance ratio of the compo­nent.

Solu­tion 2:
Compo­nents opti­mised by us live longer.

In order to extend the service life of compo­nents for you, we realise the opti­mi­sa­tion of your struc­tural compo­nent, thus enabling the desired service life while simul­ta­ne­ously increasing the load capacity. From the concep­tual design through simu­la­tion and opti­mi­sa­tion of the compo­nents to the devel­op­ment of produc­tion-opti­mised manu­fac­turing concepts to meet quality stan­dards, we support you. Since moni­toring during the produc­tion process also plays an impor­tant role in the longevity of rotor blades, for example, we offer you exper­tise in the quality assur­ance of FRP parts through on-site produc­tion moni­toring.

Compo­nents realised by us thus reduce your running costs, as these compo­nents not only have a longer service life but also allow for longer inspec­tion inter­vals. As a result, the down­times of the wind turbines can be reduced and their effec­tive­ness increases.

Solu­tion 3:
With us, you’re just in time – and on budget, of course.

We make short devel­op­ment cycles and the highest compo­nent safety possible for you while adhering to the budget frame­work defined by you.

In addi­tion to our many years of exper­tise in light­weight design and inno­v­a­tive solu­tions, the profes­sional manage­ment of your project makes an impor­tant contri­bu­tion to its fast and successful fulfil­ment. Close and regular commu­ni­ca­tion with you is the effi­cient way to react quickly and flex­ibly to your wishes and to offer expe­dient solu­tions.

Our 10-strong team is equipped with all the neces­sary in-house resources. This guar­an­tees speed and quality. We are constantly devel­oping – state-of-the-art digital engi­neering is not just applied by us, we also develop it, meaning that unique simulation/​calculation tools are avail­able.

  • Light­weight engi­neering for wind turbines

    Super­vising the produc­tion of fibre-composite rotor blades for wind turbines

    The loads on indi­vidual compo­nents of ever larger wind turbines are immense. In addi­tion to the struc­tural design of fibre-composite parts - e.g. rotor blades - their flaw­less produc­tion is essen­tial. That is why we monitor the produc­tion of rotor blades with a member of staff on site at the customer’s premises and also carry out the final inspec­tion.

    In this field, the following compe­ten­cies at ar engi­neers lead to success:

    • Exten­sive exper­tise in produc­tion plan­ning and moni­toring of complex, highly loaded fibre-composite compo­nents.
    • In-depth knowl­edge of produc­tion processes in small batches, thanks to exten­sive expe­ri­ence in boat building
    • Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and eval­u­a­tion of poten­tial bottle­necks in produc­tion and devel­op­ment of
    • Coor­di­na­tion between manu­fac­turer (Siemens Gamesa) and oper­ator (Vatten­fall), as well as docu­men­ta­tion and prepa­ra­tion of reports.

    Thanks to our many years of exper­tise in the produc­tion plan­ning and moni­toring of complex, highly stressed fibre-composite compo­nents, we at ar engi­neers can enable our customer to produce the rotor blades on schedule while at the same time achieving the highest quality stan­dards.

    Read more

  • Light­weight engi­neering for wind turbines

    Devel­op­ment of a wind turbine canopy

    A medium-sized German manu­fac­turer asked us to support them in the devel­op­ment of a nacelle for an offshore wind turbine. As the company’s engi­neering was primarily focused on manu­fac­turing, we were called in. This project required exten­sive exper­tise in FE simu­la­tion. The aim was to develop an econom­i­cally manu­fac­turable compo­nent from concep­tu­al­i­sa­tion of the complex project to the creation of the produc­tion docu­ments. An addi­tional chal­lenge was that the boundary condi­tions were not clearly defined at the start of the project.

    The following compe­tences at ar engi­neers led to the success of the project:

    • Very good knowl­edge of fibre-composite struc­tures in the field of wind turbines
    • Exper­tise in the produc­tion of large fibre-composite struc­tures also from allied indus­tries such as maritime (lifeboats with similar approaches and produc­tion processes)
    • A lot of expe­ri­ence with the certi­fi­ca­tion of composite struc­tures and dealing with certi­fiers such as Lloyds Register (LR), Bureau Veritas (BV) or DNV

    With our compre­hen­sive exper­tise in fibre-composite mate­rials and struc­tural design in offshore wind, boat and ship building, we were able to realise the project with our client and hand it over on time and on budget, thanks to our long expe­ri­ence with large load bearing struc­tures requiring certi­fi­ca­tion.

    Read more

→ Michel’s favourite project:

  • Michel Elle

    Project engi­neer

    My passion is working on future tech­nolo­gies like wind energy.

    My job in the renew­able energy sector allows me to put my specialist skills from my Master’s degree in Wind Engi­neering into prac­tice. I super­vise the produc­tion of wind turbine rotor blades on site at the customer’s produc­tion facility.

    Read more

Further industry focus

New Mobility

Auto­mo­tive

Maritime

Light­weight engi­neering

Would you like to achieve your goals more easily with us?

You are welcome to discuss your challenges in lightweight design with us without obligation. Make an appointment today. We look forward to talking with you.

Book an appointment now

Interested in lightweight engineering news?

Interested in regular news on the topic of innovative lightweight solutions? Then register here for the newsletter „lightly made”.