Thermoplastic Wind Blades: To be or not?
Will future wind blades incorporate thermoplastic composites? It depends on whom you ask.

Big parts? Big tooling breakthrough
Electrically heated carbon fiber/PEEK/ceramic tooling and powdered epoxy resin system could revolutionize production of large composite aerospace structures.

Thermoplastic composites: Sustainable transport
Cyclic PBT oligomers used to mold Class 8 semitrailer bed via vacuum-bag processing.

Aerospace-grade compression molding
Continuous Compression Molding process produces structures 30 percent lighter than aluminum at costs that have both Airbus and Boeing sold.

The matrix
The matrix material binds the fiber reinforcement, gives the composite component its shape and determines the quality of its surface. A matrix can be polymeric, ceramic or metallic. Polymer matrices are the most widely used for composites in commercial and high-performance aerospace applications.

Wind Blade Manufacturing, Part II: Are thermoplastic composites the future?
 In a market dominated by thermoset composites, some wind turbine blade manufacturers are actively pursuing new composite blade designs featuring faster-processing reinforced thermoplastics.