How to make a wind turbine❓
Specifically, how to make a light, transportable wind turbine that can set up and taken down by a single person in less than 20 minutes and provide up to 4.5 kWh in 24 hours in a fresh breeze? 🌬
In a recent post (link in comment) I described how I received my Wind Catcher just before New Year.
What I didn't cover was that I had an extremely interesting visit at KiteX's premises recently.
It's not that I don't know what it's like to be part of a startup company. But I have never been part of a startup that designed, prototyped and manufactured a physical product, and that's a totally different game with lots of additional complexities.
While the KiteX team has gone a long way to reduce the use of materials, it's impossible to make such a product without a number of subsuppliers. Add Supplier Manager to your CV.
You also need to manage a vast number of parts and subassemblies and making sure to have enough on stock of those. And then you have the entire domain of quality assurance. Because it's not enough that you have validated your design, you also need to make sure that what comes out of production lives up to that design and is top notch quality. Add Warehouse Manager, Production Manager and QA Manager to your CV.
But that's not all. You also need to make sure that your product reaches your customers in good shape with the least possible use of packaging materials. Add Logistic Manager to your CV.
So production and shipment are their own beasts, and issues often arise in totally unexpected ways. You have to combat those issues one by one and find a solution for each and every one of them. 🧐
Now, the challenges don't get any smaller if you're doing things in new ways. And 3D-printing many parts of a wind turbine is not everyday business most other places.
So it was fascinating to experience the 3D-printing facility with 3D-printers side by side on shelves printing parts for turbines. Here I learned how the humidity of the printing filament is crucial for the quality of the output to the extent that climate-controlled compartments for the filaments were necessary. Just one of those small details were the devil hides.
Amazing job done by the KiteX team that has now grown to 7 people. I'm sure that reaching this point has been a lot of fun, challenges and frustations, and it has, for sure, required creativity, hard work, long hours, and, above all, a lot of dedication.
Thank you so much Christoffer Sigshøj and Johan Keiser Krusborg for taking the time. 🙏
#offgrid #3dprinting
