The present invention relates to an apparatus for drying a material in a mold cavity, and a method for manufacturing a molded article by means of the said apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus for drying a material in a mold cavity by employing movable microwave device, and the method for manufacturing a molded article of materials, such as polyurethane resin, unsaturated resin, and epoxy resin, by means of the said apparatus.
Wind power, as clean and renewable energy, the development potential thereof has been recognized by countries all over the world. In China, one of the main countries in the development of wind power, each year's newly installed capacity is about 50% of that of the whole world since 2010. As expected, the accumulated installed wind power capacity in China will reach 100 GW in 2015.
Vacuum infusion technology is commonly used in the manufacture of the wind turbine blade. By using this technology, a required wind turbine blade is made of a glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin composite material by means of an ageing treatment under high temperature. However, the ageing treatment of epoxy resin requires very long time and results in low efficiency in the manufacture of the wind turbine blade.
Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problem of low manufacturing efficiency, some researchers raised that polyurethane resin could be used to manufacture a wind turbine blade. A wind turbine blade made of this kind material, compared with a traditional wind turbine blade, has various advantages, such as: better mechanical performance, better fatigue resistance performance, higher interlaminar shear strength, lower product contraction rate, higher manufacturing efficiency, and less mold input cost.
However, besides the increased speed of infusion, prior to manufacturing a wind turbine blade of polyurethane resin by means of the vacuum infusion technology, moisture shall be removed and temperature shall be controlled with regard to all the materials, including glass fiber mat, balsa and etc., in the vacuum infusion mold cavity. This is because water will bring negative effects to the polyurethane resin reaction. Therefore, vapor shall be removed completely from the infusion mold cavity to prevent low manufacturing quality of a wind turbine blade.
A commonly used method for removing moisture is heating and vacuumizing the mold cavity. However, since a large wind turbine blade may have a length of 50 m to 60 m, when the common method is used to heat and to vacuumize the mold cavity, great amount of time are spent to remove the vapor completely. Moreover, this kind of heating method has various disadvantages, including: low penetration, high thermal inertia, and “remaining heat” and “over heating” phenomenon existed in the mold cavity. To achieve a process temperature suitable for the curing of polyurethane material, if “over heated”, the mold cavity usually needs to be cooled to have its temperature controlled. Otherwise, in the follow-up vacuum infusion, the curing speed of the polyurethane material will rise dramatically, and the soaking speed of glass fiber mat and the manufacturing quality of the wind turbine blade will be thus severely affected.
Therefore, above improved solution although solves the problem of long infusion time in the prior art, it brings new problem that large amount of time is cost in the moisture removing step, and thus it can not overcome the disadvantage of low manufacturing efficiency in practice.
In this regard, it is urgent to develop an apparatus for efficient and fast drying a material in a mold cavity, and a method for manufacturing a molded article by means of the said apparatus. Such method is preferred specifically suitable for large molded articles of a macromolecule material resin, such as a polyurethane resin, and may greatly reduce the time cost in the moisture removing progress without affecting the manufacturing quality of the molded articles.
One object of the present invention is providing an apparatus for efficiently and quickly drying a material in a mold cavity.
Another object of the present invention is providing a method for manufacturing a molded article by means of the said apparatus, which is specifically suitable for large molded articles made of a macromolecule material, such as a polyurethane resin.
The first aspect of the present invention relates to an apparatus for drying a material in a mold cavity, comprising: a microwave device for supplying microwave to said material; and a walking device disposed outside the microwave device, which enables the microwave device to be movable along a guide rail disposed inside the mold cavity.
Preferably, this apparatus may further comprise a lifting device disposed on the walking device, and the lifting device is connected to the microwave device and drives said microwave device to ascend and descend between an initial position and an operation position.
More preferably, the walking device may be composed of a bracket and a plurality of rollers rotatable on the guide rail, and the microwave device may ascend and descend below the bracket by means of the lifting device.
In a specific embodiment, the microwave device may comprise: a frame connected to the lifting device; magnetrons being in communication with each other and disposed from the frame in a vertical direction; waveguides; resonant cavities; and uniform filters, the microwave generated from the magnetrons passing through the waveguides and the resonant cavities, is output from the uniform filters and then heats the material in the mold cavity.
As in illustrative examples, the magnetrons may be small domestic magnetrons having a frequency of 2540 MHz, or large industrial magnetrons having a frequency of 915 MHz.
When employing large industrial magnetrons having a frequency of 915 MHz, the waveguides may be forked waveguide combinations for guiding microwave into the resonant cavities and the uniform filters, one end of the forked waveguide combinations is connected to the resonant cavities and the other end of the forked waveguide combinations is connected to the magnetrons by means of an annular member.
Preferably, the frame may be provided with an energy-leakage preventing device around the frame for preventing microwave leakage.
Further, the microwave device may be provided with 2 to 20 sets of magnetrons.
The second aspect of the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a molded article, comprising: moisture removing step in which microwave is applied to the material in the mold cavity to phase the moisture contained in the material into vapor by means of the above apparatus, and then the vapor in the mold cavity is removed; and an infusing step in which a macromolecule material resin is infused into the mold cavity under a negative pressure to manufacture the molded article.
Preferably, the moisture removing step may comprise: (a) descending the lifting device from the initial position, together with the microwave device connected thereon, to the operation position; (b) driving the microwave device to apply microwave to the material in the mold cavity; (c) ascending the microwave device from the operation position to the initial position by means of the lifting device when the water contents contained in the material in the mold cavity is lower than a predetermined value, and stopping operation.
Most preferably, the composite material may be polyurethane resin, unsaturation resin or epoxy resin, and the molded article may be a large scale molded article, such as a wind turbine blade or an aircraft wing.
The present invention can solve the problems such as low efficiency when the moisture contained in the materials, such as glass fiber mat and balsa, in a mold cavity in the prior art. By employing a microwave device, the moisture contained in the glass fiber mat and balsa in the mold cavity can be removed efficiently and quickly, and thus manufacturing quantity can be significantly improved and manufacturing cost is greatly lowered.
By employing a movable microwave device to remove the moisture contained in a material in a mold cavity, following technical effects can be achieved:
Because of the small thermal inertia of microwave heating, the heating of water molecules by microwave may enable the heating and temperature raising course to be completed immediately. Thus, remaining heating phenomenon will not exist in the mold cavity, which is very beneficial for automatic control and continuous heating and manufacturing.
By using microwave and vacuum drying technology, not only a glass fiber mat and balsa in a mold cavity can be dried quickly and efficiently, the overheating of the whole system can be prevented and the whole system can be maintained in a range of temperature suitable for the reaction of systems such as polyurethane resin.
For further describing the overall structure of the apparatus for drying a material in a mold cavity according to the present invention, and the method for manufacturing a molded article by means of the said apparatus, with references to the drawings and the detailed embodiments, the present invention is described in details hereinafter, wherein, the first embodiment is showed in
With reference to the drawings, preferable embodiments of an apparatus for drying a material in a mold cavity, and the detailed implement steps of a method for manufacturing a molded article by means of the said apparatus are described as followings.
With reference to
Each of
With continued reference to
Each microwave generating device comprises a magnetron 23, a waveguide 24, a resonant cavity 21, and a uniform filter 22, which are in communication with each other and disposed from the frame 26 in a vertical direction. Specifically, magnetron 23 is installed below the frame 26 so as to ascend and descend with the frame 26 and the lifting device 30 between the initial position and the operation position. An end of the waveguide 24 is in communication with the magnetron 23, so as to allow the microwave generated by the magnetron 23 to be conducted through. A microwave input port of the resonant cavity 21 is connected to the other end of the waveguide 24, while a microwave output port thereof is in communication with the uniform filter 22, so that the microwave, after passing the resonant cavity 21, is uniformly outputted from the uniform filter 22, and heats the material in the mold cavity there under.
A waveguide may be used to perform transmission tasks such as microwave transferring, connecting, coupling, redirecting. A hollow waveguide may restrain the electromagnetic field within the space of the waveguide, in order to prevent radiation loss. According their shape and function, waveguides could be sorted into straight waveguides, curved waveguides, bended waveguides, and twisted waveguides, the later three types of which are waveguides used to change a transmission direction. Microwave heating generally employs a waveguide with rectangular section in the form of a thin and long hollow metallic tube with a rectangular section. The dimension of the hollow inner space of the waveguide is a key issue to insure the transmission of high order type waves, i.e. it determines the cutoff wave length of the high order type waves transmitted thereby. The inner surface of the waveguide shall be smooth without any welding scale or cuspidal point, because any dissymmetry or anomaly will absorb the energy of the dominant mold imputed from the waveguide and then radiate again, and stimulate other molds of waves, which may cause a non-uniform electromagnetic field, and affect the heating effects significantly.
As described above, the microwave device 20 may be movable between the initial position and the operation position. As showed in
Furthermore, as the material, such as glass fiber mat and balsa is evenly distributed in the bottom of the arc-shaped mold cavity, thus microwave devices 20 may be designed as that the descending height of the microwave generating devices in a middle line is bigger than that in lines on both sides. Thus, the materials in the most bottom part of the mold cavity can also be heated in the maximal level.
An energy-leakage preventing device 25 is disposed around the frame 26 in order to prevent the leakage of microwave generated by the microwave generating device. The energy-leakage preventing device 25 may be designed as foldable relative to the plane of the frame 26, so as to be folded downwardly and used as a cover when necessary. Certainly, it is known to person of ordinary skills in the art that additional sealing device may also be disposed to further prevent the leakage of microwave. Such variations shall also be within the scope of protection of the present invention.
The energy-leakage preventing device 25 may comprise following types: (1) cutoff waveguide type, this type of energy-leakage preventing device utilizes the principle that microwave energy is severely attenuated in a cutoff waveguide when spreading therein; (2) waveguide groove suppression type, in this kind of energy-leakage preventing device, a group of short circuit waveguides are added at the broad edge of the input and output ports of the microwave heating component; (3) corrugated type, in this type of energy-leakage preventing device, a series of waveguide grooves with equal length are periodically arranged on the main waveguide; and (4) resistance suppression type, in this type of energy-leakage preventing device, materials with good microwave absorbing property are adhered to the end thereof in order to absorb the microwave energy.
In the present preferable embodiment, on the front and back ends of the inverted-U-shaped bracket of the walking device 10, a pair of rollers 13 rotatable on the guide rail 11 disposed inside the mold cavity are disposed respectively, so as to allow the lifting device 30 and the microwave device 20 connected below the bracket of the lifting device 30 to move to and fro along the guide rail 11. Certainly, more that one pair of rollers may also be disposed, and corresponding improvements on the structure of the walking device 10 may also be made to make the movement of the walking device 10 more stable. It is obvious to person of ordinary skills in the art, and thus detailed descriptions on this kind of improvements are omitted here in this text.
The lifting device 30 may be arbitrarily chosen from any conventional hydraulic or mechanical lifting devices sellable on the market, preferably hydraulic lifting device may be employed. Currently, conventional hydraulic or mechanical lifting devices commonly seen on the market include: (1) a hydraulic lifting device, in which a hydraulic pump is driven manually or electrically, the transmission is made by means of a hydraulic system, and a cylinder body or a piston is used as a lifting element; (2) a rack lifting device, a rack is driven manually by a level and a pinion in order to lift a frame; and (3) a screw lifting device, in which the transmission is made manually by means of a helix pair, and a screw or a nut sleeve is used as a lifting element.
A conventional screw lifting device supports loads by the self-locking effect of the thread, the structure of which is simple, however, the transmission efficiency is low and the return is slow. The thread of a self-descending lifting device has no self-locking effect, but a brake can be provided. When the brake is released, the load may descend by itself quickly so that the return time is reduced. However, the structure of the later lifting device is rather complicated. When a horizontal screw is provided on the lower part of the lifting device, the lifting device can move the load horizontally in small distance, so that the operation flexibility is improved.
With reference to
In this embodiment, the microwave device 20 comprises a series of small microwave generating devices connected in series and/or in parallel. As showed in
With reference to
As showed in
Because of the huge power of the magnetron 29 employed in the second embodiment, it is not necessary to provide an individual magnetron for each microwave generating device. Thus, as showed in
Compared with the first embodiment, the second embodiment has the advantages of large power, high heating speed and high efficiency.
Hereinafter, the specific implementing steps for manufacturing a molded article by means of above apparatus, which mainly comprise the moisture removing step and the infusing step, are described. In the moisture removing step, microwave is applied to the material in the mold cavity to phase the moisture contained in the material into vapor by means of the apparatus of the present invention, and then the vapor in the mold cavity is removed by means of devices such as a vacuum extraction device. Specifically speaking, firstly, descending the lifting device 30 from the initial position together with the microwave device 20 connected thereon to the operation position. Then, driving the microwave device 20 to apply microwave to the material in the mold cavity to phase the moisture contained in the material into vapor. When the drying process completes, i.e. the moisture contained in the dried material is lower than a predetermined value, ascending the microwave device 20 from the operation position to the initial position by means of the lifting device 30 and stopping operation. In the infusing step, a macromolecule material resin is infused into the mold cavity under a negative pressure to manufacture the molded article by means of processes such as a vacuum infusion process.
It is easy to be understood by person of ordinary skills in the art that above-mentioned macromolecule material resin may be polyurethane resin, unsaturation resin or epoxy resin. These resins are relatively more suitable for manufacturing a large molded article, such as a wind turbine blade or an aircraft wing. Certainly, large scale molded articles used in the fields of water vehicle, such yachts and fishing boats, and rail vehicle shall also be the objects manufactured according to the method of the present invention.
With reference to
When the moisture contained in the prefabricated parts 102 in the mold cavity and in the core materials such as foam, balsa, or any other reinforcing material in the prefabricated parts 102 is phased into vapor by microwave, vapor in the mold cavity can be extracted by means of the above vacuum process. When the vapor has been extracted, inserting the resin tube 107 into an open resin bucket 111 filled with resin, and the resin will be sucked into above airtight system due to the vapor and the effect of atmospheric pressure and will oak the prefabricated parts 102 quickly with the help of the mold floe web 104. Redundant resin will be sucked through the vacuum tube 108 and collected in the resin catcher 110. Then, according to the property of the resin used, curing the resin in room temperature or by heating the mold. In the end, removing the components such as the peel ply 103, the mould flow web 104, the resin tube 107 and the vacuum tube 108, and taking the cured article out of the mold to obtain the final product.
Although the structure of the apparatus of the present invention and the method for manufacturing a molded article by means of the said apparatus are described above with references to the preferable embodiments, person of ordinary skills in the art shall recognize that above examples are only for illustrative purpose and will not limit the present invention. For example, small magnetrons 23 and large magnetrons 29 can be used in combination, and other moisture removing devices may be employed in place of the vacuum extraction device. Therefore, variations are available within the scope of the substantial spirit of the claims. These variations shall all fall within the scopes claimed by the claims of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
201510426424.9 | Jul 2015 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/EP2016/066562 | 7/12/2016 | WO | 00 |