Efficiency, repeatability, accuracy, and modularity. With these drivers, we conceive our Direct Infusion Systems, ensuring superior performance and improved productivity.
After an initial halt related to the continuing pandemic, the wind power industry is again growing strongly, looking for cost-effective solutions and highly efficient products.
Focusing on these market needs, we at Cannon developed an innovative Direct Infusion System to automate and provide accurate higher volume dosing to accelerate vacuum infusion. This system allows a repeatable, reliable production process that reduces waste and avoids volatile organic compounds, thereby improving operator safety.
How Cannon Direct Infusion technology works
Our Direct Infusion System is an innovative way to infuse resin into the mold for a wind turbine blade.
To keep the pressure just below the ambient level (absolute 1 bar) at the mold’s inlet gates, the reactive resin blend is infused at positive pressure. This way, the vacuum into the infusion bag can enhance the resin flow into the fiber layup, and the pressure drop due to the infusion hoses becomes negligible.
Peristaltic valves control the resin flow along the hoses, avoiding overfeeding material to other gates.
Why choose this technology
Answering the market need for cost-effective and efficient production, we design tailored plants, including one or more of our 6 DXI model dosing units, able to run simultaneously or independently thanks to their control system.
This latter is the heart of the plant and grants smooth wind turbine blade manufacturing. It speeds up and automates the direct infusion process, ensuring complete control over the system, maximum infusion precision, and process repeatability in different environments. Each machine is designed to allow the feeding of several infusion lines and gates simultaneously.
Thanks to its small dimensions and modularity, the DXI can be placed everywhere around the blade’s mold. Depending on the production requirements, more than one DXI can work on the same mold or be used on different ones. Movable degassing and unloading systems for IBCs or bigger, fixed conditioning tanks can be selected according to the logistic philosophy of every manufacturing plant.
Furthermore, our plants are conceived to keep the infusion phase completely sealed, in compliance with even the strictest regulations regarding vapors emissions, protecting both operators and the resin from external contaminations.
All the advantages of the Direct Infusion System at a glance:
- Infusion precision
- Improved productivity
- Process repeatability
- Easy to implement
- Safer