3D Printing Rotor Blades powers Wind Turbine Research | TU Berlin

On average, wind turbine blades are a massive 35 meters long. When it comes to reengineering these towering blades, no other technology offers the freedom, precision, and adaptability to scale parts quite like 3D printing. While replicating them in a university lab might be near impossible, a scaled prototype with 1 meter blades is very much in the wheelhouse of a large-build volume 3D printer. Here, researchers go big by starting small. Based on 3D-printed rotor blades, TU Berlin offers a course - Wind Turbine Measurement Techniques that imparts skills to measure the performance of the blades at different operating points. The students learn how to gauge the speed of the wind while at the same time assess the power generated by the turbine. The course revolves around comparing the performance of a traditionally made, hand-carved, 2 meter wooden blade with a 3D-printed 1 meter rotor blade with gyroid infill. The additively manufactured blade is the fruit of the research conducted by a Ph.D. and Master’s student who studied at TU Berlin, Jörg Abler, and Laurin Assfalg. During the study, they discovered that with 3D printing, experimenting with different infills, shapes, and materials, the sky’s the limit. Find out more about BigRep Industrial 3D Printers: ONE 👉 STUDIO 👉 PRO 👉 Discover BigRep’s Engineering Grade Filaments 👉 Follow us on social media 📲: YouTube ► Instagram ► LinkedIn ► Facebook ► Twitter ► If you’re interested in publishing this video on your website please contact 👉 marketing@