A mould for moulding a wind turbine blade or an elongate structural part thereof, the mould comprising a plurality of longitudinal elongate mould sections adapted to be fitted together in an end-to-end relationship to form a unitary mould, each mould section having a central mould portion between opposite end portions, each mould section being composed of a fibre reinforced resin matrix composite material, at least one end portion of each mould section forming an integral flange oriented substantially orthogonally downwardly with respect to an upper surface of the mould section, and the upper surface including a moulding surface and a recess located between the flange and the moulding surface, the recess extending across a transverse width of the mould section whereby when the flanges of adjacent mould sections are fitted together in an abutting relationship, the adjacent recesses form a combined recess separating the moulding surfaces of the adjacent mould sections.

Described herein is a mold for making units of a dome structure, comprising: a first mold piece, a second mold piece, a third mold piece; the third mold piece is configured to be sandwiched between and assembled with the first and second mold pieces; wherein an assembly of the first mold piece, the second mold piece, and the third mold piece is configured to form a mold cavity; wherein the third mold piece comprises a plurality of sidewall plates; wherein the plurality of sidewall plates are perpendicular to a same spherical surface when the third mold piece is assembled with the first and second mold pieces. Described herein is also a method of using the mold, and the method comprises: assembling the plurality of sidewall plates to form the third mold piece; assembling the second mold piece and the third mold piece; assembling the first mold piece with the second mold piece and the third mold piece to form the mold cavity of a first-level mold; injecting a molding material into the mold cavity; forming a unit of a first-level dome structure by allowing the molding material to form into shape; opening the first-level mold; extracting the unit of the first-level dome structure.

Object molded in thermoplastic material in any shape having an outer surface from which protrudes at least one hook in one piece with the molded object, in particular a hook field, the molded object and the hook(s) having been formed by injection molding, each hook comprising a base part and a head or hooking part protruding from the base part and being delimited by first and second lateral surfaces each extending on the outer surface of the molded object, being separated from each other by an intermediate surface forming the edge of the hook, the curve sections, defined by the intersections of at least one of the first and/or second lateral surfaces with planes which are in parallel with the base plane from which the hook protrudes and which are at given distances h from this base plane, have a curvature which varies as a function of the distance h, the curvature of the curve section for h=0 (the base plane and said parallel plane merging) being greater than the curvature of at least one curve section for a distance h substantially corresponding to a level of the head of the hook.

A method for closing an injection mold for manufacturing a revolution part made of composite material, the mold including a mandrel supporting a fiber preform and angular sectors comprising an annular base to come into contact with the fiber texture, the annular base extending between first and second side edges along a circumferential direction. The method includes successive positioning and fixing the angular sectors on the mandrel, the annular base of each sector compacting the fiber preform portion present oppositely, the side edges of the annular base of each angular sector being in contact with the side edges of the annular base of the adjacent sectors. Before the positioning and fixing of the angular sectors on the mandrel, strip s are placed on the exposed surface of the fiber preform, each strip covering an area of the fiber preform located facing a junction area between two adjacent angular sectors.

The disclosure features systems, devices, and methods of sectioned compaction of composite materials for large parts. An example system includes a mold assembly, including a bottom wall, one or more side walls coupled to the bottom wall, one or more pistons, wherein the bottom wall, the one or more side walls, and the one or more pistons at least partially define a mold cavity, and wherein each of the one or more pistons are independently movable to reduce the volume of the mold cavity; and a plurality of fasteners configured to selectively immobilize the one or more pistons; and a compression actuator configured to sequentially advance the pistons from an initial position to an actuated position to compress a composite material within the mold cavity.

An additive manufacturing method includes receiving an electronic representation of a part with a control system, determining a plurality of layers for the electronic representation of the part, and separating one or more of the layers associated with the electronic representation of the part into a plurality of segments. The additive manufacturing method further includes adding a joint structure to two or more of the segments and generating instructions for controlling a machining apparatus based on the electronic representation of the part, the layers, the segments, and the joint structure.

A mold for use in molding a surface of a component is formed from separate building blocks that are assembled together so that mold surface segments associated with each of the building blocks line up to form one contiguous mold surface that corresponds with the shape of the mold. The building blocks can be formed to have integral formations for connecting them together. The building blocks can be formed by modeling the contiguous mold surface, dividing this first mold model into sections which define discrete building block models, and then forming each building block separately based on the discrete building block models. For instance, the individual block models can be assigned to different additive manufacturing machines and then later be assembled together at a final location.