Summary

This is the mounting flange for a 2.5 meter 8 blade electrical generation windmill.
The flange is printed in NYLON so as to provide a shore 45 single piece flexible connection to the main drive shaft from eight fiberglass blades. The parts were printed on a 2BEIGH3 3D Printer. Details of the printer can be seen at:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Combination-CNC-Machine-and-3D-Printer/

Instructions

This stl is designed to be printed in NYLON and therefore incorporates the cooling model for NYLON.
This part is for discussion purposes as the end use is a non-commercial electrical power generation windmill.
The user required a single unit to replace multi-part flanges on 29 existing installations located over a 2200 acre hillside farm and residence. Each unit connects to a self regulating alternator/inverter/battery system. All units are controlled and monitored via WiFi. Usage includes spot irrigation, animal surveillance, pump and other reservoir levels.
Due to the type of crops, there has been a larger than normal mortality of birds in the last few years. There was a request to modify all of the blade flanges in such a way as to provide a considerable â€œgiveâ€ or â€œdeflectionâ€ of the blades, yet keep generation efficiency at its current level. The â€œshoreâ€ value was provided by a local university.
Previous designs used spring-loaded hinges. After a short time, these would break and the mill would become unbalanced, and therefore unusable.
It was pointed out that while NYLON would provide the needed â€œshoreâ€, it was susceptible to water absorption from the elements. This would mean that the flanges would probably need to be replaced every 20-24 months depending on usage. The end user believes itâ€™s less costly to simply print out flanges and change them out when the mills are brought out from winter storage as opposed to a more expensive alternative.
This part is the REV â€œAâ€ design, but the fill has been changed to decrease the â€œshoreâ€ value after initial testing.
Each blade is aligned via two alignment pins, and held in place by an oval clamp.
As crop rotation takes place next year, effectively of the flange could take 4-5 years.
The only surprise in actual usage came from the fact that the NYLON replacement flange was so light, the millâ€™s alignment vane required some minor re-balancing.
A 12 unit field test will take place in late June.
The part is low res and designed to be printed with a .56 - .62 mm nozzle.
Even as the part is large, there is no corner lifting at 80% fill.
A heated table is not used. As in the photo, the part is printed on plain masking tape.
Material color on-hand is a reddish orange â€“ Field test parts will be printed in a dark tan.
The part was designed in Rhino, skinned in Slic3r v6 with no retraction and printed on a 2BEIGH3.
Retail material cost = $0.26

NYLON Windmill Flange to reduce Bird Mortality