Manufacturing’s Response to Wind Power’s High Demand

With the US Department of Energy setting a goal to obtain at least five percent of US electricity needs from wind power by the year 2020, the demand for “green energy” is certainly growing. If you can, now is the time to take advantage of wind power’s exploding growth and one Michigan company is doing just that.

ATI Casting Service in Alpena, Michigan is a 15 year member of the AWEA (American Wind Energy Association), specializing in manufacturing large castings utilized in wind energy and other markets.

“Wind energy is environmentally friendly and the price of wind is not going to change, it’s always free – unlike coal, natural gas, or nuclear fuels,” said ATI Casting Service President David Neil. “This fact and with the DOE’s 2020 goal has resulted in a rush to produce wind turbines to get onto towers to start producing energy. Our customer base has grown as well as the demand of our existing customers.”

In their manufacturing processes, ATI Casting Service must measure the castings they make for wind turbine hubs which can easily weigh as much as 36,000 pounds and be large enough for a grown man to walk through. In the past, the measurements were taken with a combination of a fixed CMM, a laser calibration system, and an interferometer – a complicated, slow solution that did not offer needed reporting.

By implementing a FaroArm and FARO Laser Tracker, ATI Casting Service gained the speed and the reporting that they required. The FaroArm is placed inside the hub so data can be collected on the inside dimensions, and the Laser Tracker is used to trace the outside of the hub to verify the dimensions of the drilled hole-like patterns as well as the flatness of the surface.

As the demands on the wind power industry continue to grow, ATI Casting Service is prepared. With their new metrology tools from FARO in place, their greatest value has been in the time and money savings gained. Before, they would have to use an outside contractor for their machine qualifications, costing thousands of dollars for two days of service. Now they do that same service with their own personnel and in half the time, leaving more room to focus on advancing the wind power industry.

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