DSM Composite Resins (Schaffhausen / Switzerland; www.dsmcompositeresins.com) has developed a high-performance resin for wind turbine blade applications. The company said that using the new “Synolite 1790-G-3" resin allows manufacturing at room temperature, with good secondary bonding properties and a short and efficient production cycle.

Achim Johannes, business manager for advanced composites, said the resin is designed to meet the evolving material demands of wind turbine blade developers in China and across the world. The company intends to produce Synolite 1790-G-3 both in China and Europe. The low viscosity resin is particularly suitable for vacuum infusion and offers several performance improvements over other traditional UPR (unsaturated polyester resin) and epoxy resin solutions, DSM said. In particular, it displays better wet-out – the rate or speed of resin saturation with the reinforcing glass fibre – allowing composite moulding with a broad variety of glass fibres including specific glass reinforcement types commonly available in China, the company continued.

Using Synolite 1790-G-3 also allows the blade curing procedure to be performed at room temperature without the requirement of any post curing, enabling manufacturers to achieve faster production cycles and reduce total system cost by up to 40% compared with epoxy resin-based systems, DSM added.