The GL Statement of Approval for Hexcel’s prepreg means that wind blade manufacturers and designers can select certified carbon fibre/epoxy composite materials that have been approved for blade construction following rigorous testing and data analysis.
Hexcel supplies prepregs and composite materials to the wind energy industry from plants in Austria, China and the USA.
According to Hexcel, wind blade manufacturers are increasingly turning to carbon fibre composites for their superior mechanical properties, high strength and modulus at lower weight than alternative technologies. In unidirectional (UD) prepregs the carbon fibres are all aligned in a single direction to provide optimal strength and stiffness exactly where required in the structure.
Germanischer Lloyd is an internationally recognised technical monitoring group for materials testing, researching and certification for wind energy.
