The new production site in Taicang, China, more than doubles the shop floor space of Red Maple.
Gurit acquired Suzhou Red Maple Wind Blade Mould Co Ltd, a producer of wind turbine blade moulds based in Taicang, China, at the end of 2009 for around CHF30 million in 2009.
The Red Maple production facility in Taicang covers an area of over 85 000 m2 on which Gurit has opened two production halls with a surface area of 6000 m2 each. These more than double Gurit’s existing tooling shop floor to give a capacity of over 24 000 m2.
The buildings are designed for the development and manufacture of blade moulds for wind turbines of up to 7 MW. Each building has three production bays, each equipped with four 20-ton-overhead cranes to move the moulds for wind turbines of 1.5-7 MW. For the production of master plugs, a CNC machine with a working area of 65 m x 7.2 m x 5.8 m and equipped with dual machining heads will be installed in a dedicated building later in the year. A new administration building is also being completed to provide additional space to the growing organisation. The total investment cost is about CHF15 million. With the new Red Maple site, the Tooling Business of Gurit can address growing international demand and the growing trend to longer moulds. The new facility has road access to nearby ports, which facilitates international shipments.
- Gurit has also recently launched a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) core material range for the Chinese wind market, developed in partnership with China Techno Foam, which Gurit acquired in 2009.
The companies of Gurit Holding AG, Wattwil, Switzerland, specialise in the development and manufacture of advanced composite materials and related technologies, including prepregs, core materials, gel-coats, adhesives, resins and consumables.
Gurit's key markets are Wind Energy, Transportation and Marine.
