Imagine building a giant offshore wind turbine tower like a Lego set, but instead of welding heavy steel pieces together with fire and manual labor, you use high-strength composite wraps. It's like replacing a slow, expensive weld with a precision-fit, super-strong sleeve. This makes the building process much faster and removes the most dangerous jobs from the shipyard.
European offshore wind yards are uncompetitive against Asian suppliers due to the extreme manual labor and high steel costs associated with welding jacket nodes.
A scalable pilot production line featuring automated preforming, layup, and inline terahertz NDT for composite wrap joints.
If you are a foundation fabricator dealing with 30,000-50,000 hours of manual welding labor per jacket — this project developed automated composite wrap joints that enable 200% higher production throughput.
If you are an automation provider dealing with the lack of scalable production lines for large-scale composites — this project developed a pilot line with automated preforming, layup, and terahertz NDT that reduces steel use by 30-50%.
If you are a shipyard dealing with high CO2 emissions and hazardous welding environments — this project developed a composite jointing system that offers up to 35% CO2 savings and eliminates most hazardous welding tasks.
The project performs techno-economic analyses on LCoE, CAPEX, and OPEX to benchmark the technology against current welded jackets and floaters. Based on available project data, it aims to make EU fabrication yards cost-competitive against Asian suppliers.
Yes, the project is integrating a scalable pilot production line at Tree Composites. It includes six months of continuous operation to manufacture and validate representative X-joints.
Based on available project data, the consortium includes 11 partners across 6 countries, but specific licensing terms are not provided. The project focuses on making results exploitable and market-ready.
The project involves DNV to support certification and standardization of the composite joints. It also aligns with the Net-Zero Industry Act for large-scale deployment.
The project runs from 2026-05-01 to 2029-04-30, including a six-month continuous pilot-line operation phase.
The consortium is heavily industry-driven with a 64% industry ratio, consisting of 7 industrial partners, 5 of which are SMEs. This strong commercial presence, combined with 2 research centers and 1 university across 6 countries, suggests a high focus on market exploitation and industrial scalability rather than pure academic research.
Contact Tree Composites BV in the Netherlands
Contact us to connect with the JOIN2SCALE consortium for pilot line partnerships.
