Bayer develops polyurethane composite for windmill blades

The company said it developed the class of stronger composite materials in response to the wind power industry’s move toward developing and manufacturing longer, larger, and more productive blades.

Bayer details the results of the development of the low-viscosity, long-gelling polyurethane in a paper published by Dr Usama Younes, principal scientist with Bayer, and Frank Bradish, a researcher with Molded Fibre Glass Research Company.

The characteristics of the newly introduced Baydur resin infusion polyurethane systems were compared against those of epoxy- and vinyl-ester-based composites.

Peter Emrich, Moulded Fibre Glass’s vice-president of technology, told The Engineer: ‘High-fibre volume polymer composites can be brittle and subject to failure from out of plane stresses. However, polyurethane resins are very tough.’

He said the polyurethane composite has excellent fatigue performance, which makes it particularly appealing for use in large wind turbine blades.

Emrich added the work completed by Bayer shows that polyurethane composites have similar or better properties to epoxy and can cure faster.