BlueWind celebrates the manufacturing of the thousandth nacelle
Specialized in the manufacture of composite parts, a type of high-performance plastic, BlueWind recently registered a significant milestone. With just one mould, the company was able to manufacture 1,000 nacelles in a period of 28 months. In other words, the number of nacelles that left its factory in less than three years would take twice as long to be produced in the normal market average.
The thousand nacelles manufactured by infusion process by BlueWind were part of a contract signed in late 2019 with GE Renewable Energy. “In 90 days, we set up the factory from scratch to serve GE,” recalls Jean Zolet, executive director of Blue Wind. With 9.1 m in length, 2.9 m in width and 3.6 m in height, the nacelles are part of the 2X wind turbine.
In addition to the pandemic that had just erupted when it started its activities, BlueWind’s biggest challenge in its first months of life was to hire enough manpower and train it – initially, the company hired 120 employees.
Even operating with only one set of moulds, BlueWind managed to reach the rhythm of ten nacelles produced per week in an incredible four months. “Our production system combines speed and quality. In any case, keeping that pace with one mould means that everything must always work perfectly,” stresses Zolet.
From the quality point of view, the executive director of BlueWind points out that the company holds, in addition to the ISO 9001:2015 certification, the APQP4Wind seal, a quality reference in the wind power generation industry. “We also had the plant and product certified by GE itself, which conducts a very strict program with its suppliers.”
New products and processes
In addition to expanding the supply of components to GE and starting partnerships with other wind turbine manufacturers, Blue Wind intends to expand its scope of action to different markets this year. The move will be supported not only by infusion, but also by other composite moulding technologies.