Mitsubishi & Fiberline Team up to Create Wind Turbine Blades

Mitsubishi Rayon and Fiberline Composites will found a joint venture company to manufacture and distribute carbon fibre composite laminates for wind turbine blades.

Mitsubishi Rayon will supply the large tow carbon fibre produced at its Otake Production Centre to the joint venture based in Denmark. The moulding and processing technologies of Fiberline, will be used to enable light-weight, price competitive composite laminates supply to the wind turbine blade market.

In recent years, the size of wind turbine blades have become longer as the widespread installation of off-shore wind power systems and the increasing importance of low wind site development demand more efficient power generation. Such large-sized wind turbine blades require carbon fibres replacing conventional glass fibres due to their rigidity and light-weight properties.

Carbon fibre composite laminates for wind turbine blades made using a pultrusion processes are superior in composite performance and process speed compared to other carbon fibre composite materials, this being reflected in the full-scale adoption of these by the world’s leading turbine manufacturer. Consequently pultruded laminates have become the industry standard. MRC will seek to expand its share in the carbon fibres wind turbine market through this joint venture.