Wind turbine blades are conventionally made of a mould material, such as fibre glass or carbon fibre reinforced plastics. Such wind turbine blades are usually manufactured in halves or in segments of halves. The blade halves or their segments are manufactured by moulding each segment in a respective mould. The two moulded halves of segments are connected to each other by putting them on top of each other while they are still in the respective moulds. For example, one of the moulds may be fixed over the respective other mould. Then, the upper mould is arranged above the other mould with the respective upper segment facing downwards from the upper mould. In this situation, there is a risk that the blade segment disengages from the mould and either gets damaged by falling down or is misaligned with respect to other segment.
To keep the upper segment in the mould, document EP 2 308 670 A1 discloses a fixing device for fixating a segment of a wind turbine blade to a mould, in which the blade segment is manufactured, wherein the blade segment has a fixating portion. The fixing device comprises a first portion for removably fixating the blade segment at its fixating portion to the mould and a second portion for fixating the fixing device to the mould. EP 2 308 670 A1 pertains to various fixing devices configured to press and/or clamp the moulded blade half to the mould such that it is fixed in and/or on the mould.
EP 1 695 813 B1 pertains to the manufacturing of wind turbine blades by using a vacuum inside the mould. Upper and lower blade mould halves are shaped to generate a respective blade production flange terminating in a fixating portion, moulded around fixating edges on the respective mould halves. A blade half may be moulded around a lip-shaped mould edge to help fixate the blade half during a rotation and positioning of an upper mould half on top of a lower mould half.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved fixation of the wind turbine blade segment to a mould during manufacturing of the same.