Material Development: Boosting Wind Power

The challenge: high pressure and high temperatures

Floating wind turbines are often located several hundred meters above the ocean floor. Depending on factors such as water temperature, current and cable diameter, the pressure on the high voltage cables becomes very great from a water depth of about 50 meters. As a result, polyurethane buoyancy modules must keep the cables transporting the electrical energy to shore at a fixed water depth in a so-called “lazy wave”. This lowers the strain on the cables and reduces damage. The buoyancy modules are secured to the cable with clamps. At water depths of about 100 meters and more, there is so much pressure that the cable must be protected from damage additionally by rubber blocks inside the modules. And this is where our materials experts come into play.

Materials expertise with “deep value”

For us, developing a material that has to withstand high stress in seawater is nothing new. As a longstanding development partner to the oil and gas industry, we have successfully mastered the myriad challenges of applications in seawater and at great water depths. This expertise – evidenced by many years of experience in the field without failures – has made us one of the leading experts in materials development for offshore applications.

Based on these requirements and experience from many years of development work with customers, we have created an EPDM material specifically for these extreme conditions.

All advantages at a glance:

• suitable for seawater
• temperature-resistant up to 140 °C
• pressure-resistant
• can be processed in a die casting process
• durable

Innovation from the materials laboratory: EPDM material for floating offshore wind energy

With our new EPDM material developed for the specific requirements of buoyancy modules in floating wind turbines, we are contributing to the growing success of wind energy use.

Let’s give buoyancy a boost together!

Discover our sealing solutions for wind turbines.