Move Over Indiana Jones – GE Cameras Do Non-Invasive Tomb Exploration

Archaeologists exploring a newly discovered first-century tomb in Jerusalem have brought to bear some twenty-first century Remote Visual Inspection (RVI) equipment from GE. The Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras and VideoProbes enabled the crew from the University of North Carolina to unlock the secrets of the tomb without entering the chamber. What they discovered there will be revealed in a new documentary film and an accompanying book which launches today at the Discovery Times Square Museum in New York.

License to study this historically significant tomb in the East Talpiot section of Jerusalem was granted to the academic team under stipulation by religious groups and the Israel Antiquities Authority that nobody should enter the tomb, nor should anything be disturbed or retrieved.

Secrets of the tomb: A view of the inside of the 2,000-year-old tomb on the screen of the XLG3.

After drilling three eight-inch holes through two meters of rock, the team deployed a GE CA-Zoom PTZ camera attached to a mechanical/pneumatic arm designed by Hollywood prop maker, Walter Klassen. The crew also employed GE’s XLG3 video probe, which was able to snake its way through the ancient masonry and capture images from even more remote corners of the tomb.

Ultra sharp images were required to make the inscriptions on the ossuaries legible to viewers, so engineers from the Inspection Technologies business of GE Measurement & Control custom designed a high definition camera for the crew.

The project was launched and funded by Toronto based Associated Producers, with Discovery Channel backing. Titled “The Resurrection Tomb,” the documentary will air this spring in the U.S. on The Discovery Channel.

Shedding light on the past: The PTZ camera inside the tomb, illuminated by the XLG3 video probe.

GE’s RVI technology was developed for industrial applications such as inspection of jet engines for overhaul and repair. It is used to check for corrosion and cracks in machinery, to peer inside tanks and containers, down pipes, and through all sorts of apparatus on oil platforms, commercial heat exchangers, racecar engine blocks, and power generators. As David Jervis, Media Manager for GE Energy Measurement & Control says, “virtually any situation where you need to see inside something where your eye won’t take you.” The U.S. Air Force recently ordered a score of them, he says.

As is the case in ancient Jerusalem, technology designed for industry often turns out to have applications far beyond their initial intended use. “You’d say this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Jervis says, “but actually they’re doing something like it right now at the Tower of London, using the same equipment to inspect wooden horses there. You never know, we might find one thousand Greek soldiers inside.”

Merry Christmas Major Vibbert: How GE Becomes Family

Major Tim Vibbert trusts GE with his life. He spent 15 years as an Army pilot flying Apache attack helicopters powered by engines made by GE workers in Lynn, Massachusetts. “I know every inch of the engine and what they do,” Vibbert says. “I bet my life on it many times.” But that’s not why he calls GE “family.”

When Vibbert married his wife Margaret in 2001, she was an IT manager at GE’s Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky. For the next four years the couple moved between Army bases in Alabama, Texas, Korea and back. Margaret did not have to give up her career because GE transferred her between offices. “We are going to support her wherever you take her,” Margaret’s boss told Vibbert. “That was a great example of a company that values its people,” he says.

When duty calls: GE manager and U.S. Army Major Tim Vibbert spent 15 years flying Apache attack helicopters. His last tour in the middle east ended in September 2011.

The Vibberts settled back in Louisville in 2005. Vibbert, who is a West Point graduate, joined the Army reserves and started looking for a civilian job. GE was an obvious choice and he was hired as a commodity leader at Appliance Park. In 2010, Vibbert’s team found a supplier of compressors for the new GeoSpring hybrid heater, whose production GE moved to Louisville from China.

Major Vibbert goes to Washington: Tim Vibbert took part in GE’s American Competitiveness: What Works summit in Washington, DC, which concludes today with a focus on veterans.

Vibbert, however, didn’t get to see the GeoSpring through the full development cycle. In June 2010 he was called to duty and deployed to the middle east. Serving as a personnel recovery director, he trained soldiers and civilians in abduction prevention and built response teams to run recovery missions.

Vibbert’s bosses and colleagues back in Louisville did their part supporting the major. They sent him packages with books, candy, energy bars, toothpaste, and iTunes gift cards.

In December 2010 they sent a special gift. It was a signed picture of the entire team giving a salute. “I still have it,” he says. “It said ‘Merry Christmas Tim, from all your friends at GE.’ I keep it on my desk.”

Vibbert rejoined GE in September 2011. He is one of 10,000 veterans employed by the company. Chief Executive Jeff Immelt said this week that GE would hire 5,000 more vets over the next five years. The company will also join 22 companies in sponsoring “Hiring our Heroes,” a series of 400 veterans’ jobs fairs planned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2012. Besides financial support, GE vets will give resume and interview training at 50 of those fairs.

Vibbert remains in the Army reserves with his Apache unit. “I still get to fly,” he says. Those GE helicopter engines now feel like home cooking.

“A Living and Breathing Thing:” GE Opens New Appliance Plant in Louisville, First in 50 Years

Patti Beyl knows GE well. As a process operator at GE’s Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky, Beyl has spent a quarter of a century making ranges, refrigerators and dishwashers. She’s been through tough times. “Three years ago we didn’t even know if we we’re going to be here,” Beyl said. Now she can celebrate.

Today GE opened a new $38 million manufacturing plant in Louisville, the first in the city since 1957. Workers at the factory will make high-tech GeoSpring hybrid water heaters whose production GE repatriated from China. “Being able to make a new thing in the U.S., that’s a big morale booster,” Beyl said. “It gives me a lot of pride.”

Home run: Process operator Patti Beyl helped bring GeoSpring to Louisville. “Being able to make a new thing in the U.S., that’s a big morale booster,” she says. “It gives me a lot of pride.” GE plans to invest $1 billion in the appliances business and create 1,300 American jobs by 2014.

GE managers decided to build the new plant in Louisville during two tense weeks in 2009. The country slogged through the worst recession in decades, costs rose and sales slumped. Keeping GeoSpring production abroad required a large investment.

The team in Kentucky ran costs calculations. If they brought in Lean manufacturing methods and cut waste, they could make the heater in the U.S. The local union was on board. “Taking waste out does not always mean taking out headcount,” said union leader Jerry Carney. “If Lean takes a job out on the line, it creates another one somewhere else.”

In the summer of 2009, Louisville managers pulled together a group of industrial designers, manufacturing engineers, purchasing managers, production operators, maintenance workers and others, and moved them to a large room in the Appliance Park. They took apart the heater and searched for savings. “With our backs against the wall we found a way and made it work,” manager Sam Duplessis said. “We’ve been in this room for nine months and everybody pulled together. It was like the perfect storm of creativity.”

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The new heater was more efficient, cheaper to make and had 20 percent fewer parts than the one made overseas. “We took the gloves off and did what it would require to be competitive,” said product manager Tom Zimmer.

The production line came next. John Webster, whose official title is maintenance “moonshiner,” scavenged discarder cardboard, foam, pipes, and wire around the factory. He used the material to build quarter-scale mock-ups of the heaters and production machinery. “This helped us understand some of the concepts that the people in the room were talking about,” Webster said.

The team used Webster's models to nail the product flow, and built a real assembly line. Patti Beyl and other other process operators nudged it to perfection. “In the past, that would be it,” Beyl said. “Engineers would build it and it wouldn’t be subject to change. But the production line is a living and breathing thing. We keep improving it and trying to make it smarter. We are all working together.”

The Chicken and Egg Solution: GE Grants Fund School Science, Transform Standards and Train for Good Jobs

Science is “really boring when all you do is read,” said eight-grader Corinne Dietrich from the Erie School District in Pennsylvania. “You visualize it better and understand it better when you’re using all this technology in the classroom.” Dietrich was speaking to a reporter from Erie Times-News about school work that included incubating chicken eggs and analyzing the movement of a worm. “All this technology” was microscopes, graphing calculators, science kits and other tools that her district bought with help from a $15 million GE Foundation grant.

The money was part of the Foundation’s six-year, $200 million Developing Futures program focused of finding new ways to teach science and math to American students from urban areas, and ultimately improve their job prospects.

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Building a better future: Grants from the GE Foundation give American students access to hands-on experiments that improve their science skills and job prospects.

This week the Foundation announced a new $18 million grant that brings this effort to the national level. The grant will help develop national learning standards and replace the uneven patchwork that exists today. “Our economy is facing an undeniable challenge – good paying jobs are going unfilled because U.S. workers don’t have the skills to fill the positions,” said Robert Corcoran, President and Chairman of the GE Foundation. “We must cultivate a highly educated workforce and we see the standards as a key component to answering this challenge.”

The standards, known as Common Core State Standards, or CCSS, set new rigorous expectations for students in literacy and math. So far officials in 46 states have signed on.

Money from the new $18 million grant will flow to Student Achievement Partners, whose founders David Coleman, Susan Pimentel and Jason Zimba led the standards development. “The GE Foundation is going deep in this work and its commitment to improving public education for all students is exactly what it is going to take to seed real and lasting change,” Coleman said.

GE may also reap some benefit. Last year GE Transportation, which is based in Erie, announced that it would invest over $400 million to open new plants and upgrade old ones in Pennsylvania and Texas. Good engineers are always wanted. With luck, Corinne Dietrich, the budding Erie scientist, will keep GE in mind.

Fantastic Voyage: GE Invests in Bowel Surfing Capsule that May Help Doctors Detect Colon Cancer

There are better ways to pass time than prepping for a colonoscopy. This week, the GE healthymagination fund invested in Israeli company called Check-Cap Ltd. seeking to change that experience.

Inside knowledge: Check-Cap’s capsule may help doctors screen for polyps, the precursors of colorectal cancer.

Check-Cap designed an ingestible capsule that snaps pictures as it travels through the bowels. The device, which employs low energy X-ray-based technology to safely generate high resolution 3D imagery, may help doctors detect colorectal cancer. No cleansing involved. The capsule continuously transmits information to a wrist-worn data receiver. Patients can go play a round of golf or take a walk while the tiny device does its work. At the end of the journey, the capsule leaves the body the “natural” way.

The $250 million healthymagination fund invests in promising healthcare technology companies. It has focused on diagnostics, medical information management technology, and life sciences.

GE Healthcare and Check-Cap will also design and manufacture miniature cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) diagnostic imaging sensors placed inside each Check-Cap capsule. The sensors will give clinicians a full 360-degree view as the capsule moves through the colon. GE Healthcare has many years of experience in developing CZT-based detectors. Similar technologies have been used in the company’s nuclear medicine and bone densitometry systems.

Intrepid traveler: As it moves through the colon, the device transmits data to a wrist-worn receiver. No bowel cleansing required.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in men and the second in women, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Almost 60 percent of the cases occur in developed regions. Globally, it is the fourth most common cause of death from cancer. About 608,000 deaths from colorectal cancer are estimated worldwide annually, accounting for 8 percent of all cancer deaths. In the United States, colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of death from cancer.

Check-Cap plans to introduce its capsule in the European Union in late 2013, subject to regulatory approval. The company is also in discussions with the U. S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).