A real nest
A blade tip section's ply kit on 28.83 m of 1270 mm glass fabric, 87% used
Tapered shell plies in five ply drops, root build-up plies and shear-web plies of a blade tip section, two of each, the shell plies narrow enough to lie two across the roll: 16 plies of biaxial glass. Every ply keeps its fibre direction along the roll and turns half round at most; the tapered ends of the shell plies interlock head to tail. Its first marker was 31.27 m; the search kept going and cut it to 28.83 m.
| Part | Per set | Rotation | Tilt | Mirror |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| root-ply-1 | 2 | 180° steps | – | no |
| root-ply-2 | 2 | 180° steps | – | no |
| shell-ply-1 | 2 | 180° steps | – | no |
| shell-ply-2 | 2 | 180° steps | – | no |
| shell-ply-3 | 2 | 180° steps | – | no |
| web-ply | 2 | 180° steps | – | no |
| shell-ply-4 | 2 | 180° steps | – | no |
| shell-ply-5 | 2 | 180° steps | – | no |
- parts placed
- 16
- material used
- 87.2%
- marker length
- 28.83 m
- gap between parts
- 2 mm
- search time
- 5 min
Want to see how Lescut nests your own parts? Start a free trial or send us your parts.
The problem
Hundreds of plies, all slightly different
Ply drops make every ply unique
Laminate thickness changes along the blade by dropping plies, so a kit holds many plies of almost the same shape and different lengths. Nesting them by hand repeats the same waste at every ply end.
Fibre direction is fixed
Biaxial and triaxial fabrics are cut with the roll direction along the blade. A ply that turns to fit a gap no longer carries load as designed.
Kits feed the mould in order
Plies are cut, labelled and stacked in lay-up order for the mould. Patterns change with every blade revision, so the nest has to be rebuilt quickly.
Applications
Where wind turbine blade kitting software is used
Blade shell plies
Biaxial and triaxial glass plies with ply drops, nested head to tail at their fibre angle.
Spar caps
Unidirectional glass or carbon plies, long and narrow, held along the roll.
Shear webs
Web plies cut from biax, nested with the shell plies of the same fabric.
Root build-up
Short, wide plies that fill the ends of the long shell plies' marker.
Blade repair kits
Small repair plies cut to order from the same fabrics, nested together in one job.
Nacelle and spinner covers
Glass fabric plies for the GRP covers, from the same rolls.
Settings to start from
A starting point for wind turbine blades
Rules per part come from text in your file (NAME, QTY, GRADE, ROT, TILT, FLIP) or the parts table; the rest is saved once in a nesting profile that starts every job.
| For | Setting | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Biax and triax shell plies | ROT:180, FLIP:N | fibre angles stay as designed; a half turn keeps them |
| UD plies | ROT:180 | fibres along the roll |
| Ply names and marks | TEXT, MARK layers | travel with the ply for labelling |
| Gap | 2–3 mm | the knife on heavy glass fabric |
| Time | 10–20 minutes per fabric | long markers improve with long searches; Enterprise jobs run up to 20 minutes |
Preparing your files
From your CAD to Lescut
Composite design tools export flat ply patterns as DXF. Lescut reads each closed outline as a ply and keeps every other layer.
- Export each ply laid out as it lies on the roll, with the roll direction along X.
- Name plies as your lay-up sequence does, so the report and labels match the work instructions.
- Keep core kits (balsa, foam) as a separate sheet job; they come in boards, not rolls.
Good to know
What Lescut does not do
- Lescut nests and returns cutting files; it does not project plies into the mould or sequence the lay-up.
- One fabric width per job.
- It does not track fabric batches or kit inventory.
Savings
What better nesting is worth in wind turbine blades
The same parts need the same area of material however they are nested, so a better yield means buying less of it. A blade uses tonnes of glass fabric, so a fraction of a point of yield is worth more than the nesting costs. The starting figures are an example for a plant cutting biaxial glass; enter your own.
85% today → 87.0% with nesting. This is your assumption; the trial measures it on your own files.
Engine time: how the plan is chosen
Count every lay cut from a marker; most markers need 2 to 5 minutes, and longer jobs keep shortening them. Your monthly volume divided by this gives the jobs a month, and the calculator picks the cheapest plan whose engine minutes and job length cover them.
The yield gain is your assumption; the trial measures it on your own files. More on how the fabric savings calculator works.
Pricing
Wind turbine blade kitting software plans, free for 7 days
Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial with engine minutes to nest your own parts against the rolls you would have used. Add a card when you sign up; you are charged only if you keep the plan.
Textile Starter
€29 per month
120 engine minutes, 8 vCPU per job, jobs up to 2 min
- Roll nesting: fixed width, shortest marker
- Rotation, grain and flip rules per part
- Part-in-part nesting
- DXF / SVG in, DXF / SVG out, layers kept
- Stripe and plaid matching, folded and tubular markers
- 1 user
€0 for 7 days. Card required. Cancel any time.
Extra engine minutes are €0.50 each, with up to 30% off. All fabric nesting plans.
Wind turbine blade kitting software: questions
What is ply kitting for wind turbine blades?
Cutting the reinforcement fabric into the plies of a blade and grouping them in the order they go into the mould. Nesting decides how those plies are laid out on the roll, and with it how much glass fabric each blade uses.
Can Lescut nest very long plies?
Yes. Plies lie along the roll, so their length is not limited by the width; markers of tens of metres are normal. Longer markers benefit from longer searches.
Can I nest core kits too?
Core materials such as balsa and PET foam come in boards, so they are nested with sheet nesting, in a separate Lescut organization.
Can the plant's systems start jobs automatically?
Yes, with the REST API on Pro and Enterprise plans: send the kitting patterns, start the job and fetch the cutting files.