Every fall for the past 15 years, before the President and the First Family turn on the National Christmas tree in President’s Park outside the White House, Jim Riccio has strung thousands of Christmas lights on a nearly identical spruce outside GE’s headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut. “The design is the same as the one in DC,” Riccio says. “It’s as close as you can get to an exact duplicate.”
For most of the year, Riccio works as senior facilities technician in Fairfield. “I do anything that needs doing, from changing light bulbs to fixing air conditioning and plumbing,” he says. But come Columbus Day, Riccio embarks on a mission of national significance: testing the lighting design for America’s premier holiday tree.
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The First Spruce: The 2012 National Christmas Tree in President's Park outside the White House. The tree design changes every year.
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Every year for the last 15 years, GE's Jim Riccio has been building a replica of the National Christmas Tree at GE's headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut.
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Every year for the last 15 years, GE's Jim Riccio has been building a replica of the National Christmas Tree at GE's headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut.
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GE Lighting has designed the lights display and provided bulbs and lamps for the national tree for the last 50 years. About 20 years ago GE lighting designers started testing their designs in Fairfield. “In Washington they have a very strict deadline and limitations because they are right in front of the White House,” Riccio says. “We build it here a week or two earlier so that they can see what it looks like. If things don’t look right, they still have time to fix it.”
The computer-controlled design changes every year. Riccio starts working from a “power point presentation the designers used in Washington to get the design approved,” he says. The red, white and green lights, cables, and golden star ornaments weighing in at 1,000 pounds arrive on three wooden packing skids in mid-October.
It takes and Riccio and a few assistants from the landscaping crew five or six weeks to adorn the 45-foot spruce, depending on weather. “Sometimes you can’t get out there when it’s too windy and stuff,” he says. They work methodically from a 65-foot high bucket truck and a step ladder for the lower branches. Riccio keeps the design team at GE Lighting in Cleveland, Ohio, informed about his progress. “We email and talk back and forth about how it is supposed to be designed, and what the decoration set up is,” he says.
Riccio aims to be done by Thanksgiving, two weeks before the President lights the National Christmas Tree on the first Thursday in December. Since 2007, GE has been using LEDs instead of standard incandescent Christmas lights. “The LEDs cut our power consumption by 80 percent,” he says.
The Fairfield tree stands outside the main gatehouse on Easton Turnpike where everybody in the neighborhood or just passing by can see it. Riccio starts taking down the lights after the New Year, a job that takes about two weeks. He ships them back to Cleveland.
Does he use any of his decorating tricks on his own tree? “No,” Riccio says. “I let my wife and son decorate the tree at home.”
Friday, December 28, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Body Check: How a Brainy GE Scientist Helped Revolutionize Medical Imaging
Late one October night 30 years ago, GE scientist John Schenck was lying on a makeshift wooden platform inside a GE lab in upstate New York. Surrounding his body was a large magnet, 30,000 times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field. Standing at his side were a handful of colleagues. They were there to peer inside Schenck's head and take the first magnetic resonance scan (MRI) of the brain.
The 1970s were a revolutionary time for medical imaging. Researchers at GE and elsewhere improved on the X-ray machine and developed the computed tomography (CT) scanner that could produce images of the inside of the body. Other groups were trying to adapt nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for medical imaging, a technology that already used powerful magnets to study the physical and chemical properties of atoms and molecules. But their magnets were not strong enough to image the human body.
At the time, GE imaging pioneer Rowland “Red” Redington (he built the first GE CT scanner) also wanted to explore magnetic resonance and hired Schenck, a bright young medical doctor with a PhD in physics. Schenck spent days inside Redington’s lab researching giant magnets and nights and weekends tending to emergency room patients. “This was an exciting time,” Schenck remembers.
Schenck’s unique background allowed him to quickly grasp the promise of MRI. Unlike CT and X-ray machines that generate radiation which travels into the body, the strong magnetic field produced by MRI machines tickles water molecules inside body parts and makes them emit a radio signal that travels out of the body. Since every body part contains water, MRIs can recognize the source of the signal, digitize it, and apply algorithms to build an image of the internal organs.
It took Schenck and the team two years to obtain a magnet strong enough to penetrate the human body and achieve useful high-resolution images. The magnet, rated at 1.5 tesla, arrived in Schenck’s lab in the spring of 1982. Since there was very little research about the effect of such strong magnetic field on humans, Schenck turned it on, asked a nurse to monitor his vitals, and went inside it for ten minutes.
The field did Schenck no harm and the team spent that summer building the first MRI prototype using high-strength magnetic field. By October 1982 they were ready to image Schenck’s brain.
Many scientist at the time thought that at 1.5 tesla, signals from deep tissue would be absorbed by the body before they could be detected. “We worried that there would only be a big black hole in the center” of the image, Schenck says.
But the first MRI imaging test was a success. “We got to see my whole brain,” Schenck says. “It was kind of exciting.”
The 1.5 tesla magnet has since become the industry standard for MRI. Today, there are some 22,000 1.5 tesla MRI machines working around the world and generating 9,000 medical images every hour, or 80 million scans per year.
Schenck, now 73, still works at his GE lab and works on improving the machine. “When we started, we didn’t know whether there would be a future,” he says. “Now there is an MRI machine in every hospital.”
The 1970s were a revolutionary time for medical imaging. Researchers at GE and elsewhere improved on the X-ray machine and developed the computed tomography (CT) scanner that could produce images of the inside of the body. Other groups were trying to adapt nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for medical imaging, a technology that already used powerful magnets to study the physical and chemical properties of atoms and molecules. But their magnets were not strong enough to image the human body.
At the time, GE imaging pioneer Rowland “Red” Redington (he built the first GE CT scanner) also wanted to explore magnetic resonance and hired Schenck, a bright young medical doctor with a PhD in physics. Schenck spent days inside Redington’s lab researching giant magnets and nights and weekends tending to emergency room patients. “This was an exciting time,” Schenck remembers.
Heady Times: John Schenck (standing) and Bill Edelstein at the front opening of the first whole-body 1.5 tesla magnet in 1983.
Schenck’s unique background allowed him to quickly grasp the promise of MRI. Unlike CT and X-ray machines that generate radiation which travels into the body, the strong magnetic field produced by MRI machines tickles water molecules inside body parts and makes them emit a radio signal that travels out of the body. Since every body part contains water, MRIs can recognize the source of the signal, digitize it, and apply algorithms to build an image of the internal organs.
It took Schenck and the team two years to obtain a magnet strong enough to penetrate the human body and achieve useful high-resolution images. The magnet, rated at 1.5 tesla, arrived in Schenck’s lab in the spring of 1982. Since there was very little research about the effect of such strong magnetic field on humans, Schenck turned it on, asked a nurse to monitor his vitals, and went inside it for ten minutes.
The field did Schenck no harm and the team spent that summer building the first MRI prototype using high-strength magnetic field. By October 1982 they were ready to image Schenck’s brain.
Many scientist at the time thought that at 1.5 tesla, signals from deep tissue would be absorbed by the body before they could be detected. “We worried that there would only be a big black hole in the center” of the image, Schenck says.
But the first MRI imaging test was a success. “We got to see my whole brain,” Schenck says. “It was kind of exciting.”
The 1.5 tesla magnet has since become the industry standard for MRI. Today, there are some 22,000 1.5 tesla MRI machines working around the world and generating 9,000 medical images every hour, or 80 million scans per year.
Schenck, now 73, still works at his GE lab and works on improving the machine. “When we started, we didn’t know whether there would be a future,” he says. “Now there is an MRI machine in every hospital.”
Monday, December 3, 2012
A Light in the Dark: GE Turbine Helps Power Cogeneration Plant at Princeton through Blackout
Hurricane Sandy’s winds uprooted lives and wiped out power lines from Delaware to Massachusetts, breaking branches, knocking down trees, and driving a devastating ocean surge. In New Jersey, which took the brunt of the storm’s fury and saw the largest blackout of all the states impacted, more than 2.6 million outages to homes and businesses were reported.
In the heart of this widespread darkness, though, there was an area where the lights stayed on. The Princeton University cogeneration plant kicked into action when the electricity from the local power grid went out.
The Princeton plant is using a GE “aeroderivative” turbine (it has a modified supersonic fighter jet engine inside.) It began operating in 1996 and on a normal day it is supplying all the steam and half of the electricity to the university community of approximately 12,000 people. (The other half still comes from PSE&G, the local utility.)
During the storm, when the utility stopped transmitting electricity to the substation that regularly powers the campus, the Princeton plant’s three-person crew sprang into action. They stepped up the facility’s electrical generation and shut down power to a small number of lower-use areas like administrative spaces.
While hundreds of campus maintenance workers were repairing storm damage, three shifts of plant personnel worked through the storm and its aftermath, keeping the electricity flowing throughout the campus while much of the surrounding community remained without power because they had to rely on local utility companies.
"We originally built the cogeneration plant to reduce campus energy bills and provide reliable utilities,” says Ted Borer, energy plant manager at Princeton. “Its ability to serve the campus in 'island' mode made all the difference during the hurricane.”
At the heart of the cogeneration plant is a GE aeroderivative LM1600 gas turbine. Think of the turbine and others in its family as jet engines afraid of heights. GE engineers have built upon the company’s aviation roots and modified the jet engine technology to generate electricity. Instead of pushing a plane, the gas turbine spins a shaft that is attached to a generator. That unit produces the electricity.
But before the hot exhaust can escape, it is marshaled to do more work—heating water to produce steam for the campus’s heating and air conditioning systems.
Plant personnel worked without leaving campus for 56 hours during and after Sandy, according to a report from campus news. They rotated between operating the system, ensuring the campus load didn't exceed capacity, conducting maintenance to prevent problems and sleeping when they could.
By that Wednesday night, two days after Sandy struck, PSE&G had electricity flowing to Princeton again and the next morning saw power fully restored to the campus.
In the heart of this widespread darkness, though, there was an area where the lights stayed on. The Princeton University cogeneration plant kicked into action when the electricity from the local power grid went out.
The Princeton plant is using a GE “aeroderivative” turbine (it has a modified supersonic fighter jet engine inside.) It began operating in 1996 and on a normal day it is supplying all the steam and half of the electricity to the university community of approximately 12,000 people. (The other half still comes from PSE&G, the local utility.)
Fighter Power: GE's LM1600 aeroderivative gas turbine is based on technology developed for the F404 supersonic fighter jet engine (above). These engines power some 4,000 F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets.
During the storm, when the utility stopped transmitting electricity to the substation that regularly powers the campus, the Princeton plant’s three-person crew sprang into action. They stepped up the facility’s electrical generation and shut down power to a small number of lower-use areas like administrative spaces.
While hundreds of campus maintenance workers were repairing storm damage, three shifts of plant personnel worked through the storm and its aftermath, keeping the electricity flowing throughout the campus while much of the surrounding community remained without power because they had to rely on local utility companies.
"We originally built the cogeneration plant to reduce campus energy bills and provide reliable utilities,” says Ted Borer, energy plant manager at Princeton. “Its ability to serve the campus in 'island' mode made all the difference during the hurricane.”
At the heart of the cogeneration plant is a GE aeroderivative LM1600 gas turbine. Think of the turbine and others in its family as jet engines afraid of heights. GE engineers have built upon the company’s aviation roots and modified the jet engine technology to generate electricity. Instead of pushing a plane, the gas turbine spins a shaft that is attached to a generator. That unit produces the electricity.
But before the hot exhaust can escape, it is marshaled to do more work—heating water to produce steam for the campus’s heating and air conditioning systems.
Plant personnel worked without leaving campus for 56 hours during and after Sandy, according to a report from campus news. They rotated between operating the system, ensuring the campus load didn't exceed capacity, conducting maintenance to prevent problems and sleeping when they could.
By that Wednesday night, two days after Sandy struck, PSE&G had electricity flowing to Princeton again and the next morning saw power fully restored to the campus.
Can You Knit a Wind Turbine?: GE Wind Turbine Blades Made From Fabric Aim To Revolutionize Renewable Energy
Contrary to popular belief, taking a piano to a fourth-story walk up apartment in New York City may not be the toughest moving job. Consider the wind turbine. The stiff fiberglass blades of the largest turbines span half the length of a football field. Moving them from the factory to the wind farm requires custom cranes, oversize rigs, hours of careful route and traffic planning, and expert drivers to execute precarious turns. What if you could do away with all that and also eliminate the million-dollar molds used to make them for good measure?
Scientists at GE Global Research, Virginia Tech, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have started working on a new blade design using fabric wrapped around a skeleton of metal ribs resembling a fishbone. GE estimates that that the new design could revolutionize the way wind blades are designed, made, and installed, cut blade costs by 25 to 40 percent. “We are weaving an advanced wind blade that could be our clean energy future,” says Wendy Lin, a GE engineer and leader of the three-year project, which the government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) is backing with $5.6 million. “The fabric we are developing will be tough, flexible, and easier to assemble and maintain” than fiberglass, Lin says.
The use of fabrics as a tool to lower weight is not a new idea. Aircraft manufacturers used them to cover the wings of fighter planes in World War I. GE already makes rugged fabrics for wind protection and architectural design.
But Lin says that the new high-tech fabrics, which are based on fiberglass, will help spur the development of larger, lighter turbines that can capture more wind at lower wind speeds. Current technology makes it hard to produce turbines that have rotor diameters exceeding 120 meters (nearly 400 feet) because of design, manufacturing, assembly, and transportation constraints. GE’s new fabric-based technology would all eliminate these barriers.
Experts estimate that in order for the U.S. to generate 20 percent of electricity wind, the currently installed wind blade area would have to grow by 50 percent. Fabric blades can make this possible. “Developing larger wind blades is the key to expanding wind energy into areas we wouldn’t think of today as suitable for harvesting wind power,” Lin says. “Tapping into moderate wind speed markets, in places like the Midwest, will only help grow the industry in the years to come.”
Blowing in the Wind: A section of a wind blade depicting a new manufacturing concept that covers the blade with a "tensioned" fabric. This new approach could significantly reduce production costs.
Scientists at GE Global Research, Virginia Tech, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have started working on a new blade design using fabric wrapped around a skeleton of metal ribs resembling a fishbone. GE estimates that that the new design could revolutionize the way wind blades are designed, made, and installed, cut blade costs by 25 to 40 percent. “We are weaving an advanced wind blade that could be our clean energy future,” says Wendy Lin, a GE engineer and leader of the three-year project, which the government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) is backing with $5.6 million. “The fabric we are developing will be tough, flexible, and easier to assemble and maintain” than fiberglass, Lin says.
The use of fabrics as a tool to lower weight is not a new idea. Aircraft manufacturers used them to cover the wings of fighter planes in World War I. GE already makes rugged fabrics for wind protection and architectural design.
But Lin says that the new high-tech fabrics, which are based on fiberglass, will help spur the development of larger, lighter turbines that can capture more wind at lower wind speeds. Current technology makes it hard to produce turbines that have rotor diameters exceeding 120 meters (nearly 400 feet) because of design, manufacturing, assembly, and transportation constraints. GE’s new fabric-based technology would all eliminate these barriers.
Experts estimate that in order for the U.S. to generate 20 percent of electricity wind, the currently installed wind blade area would have to grow by 50 percent. Fabric blades can make this possible. “Developing larger wind blades is the key to expanding wind energy into areas we wouldn’t think of today as suitable for harvesting wind power,” Lin says. “Tapping into moderate wind speed markets, in places like the Midwest, will only help grow the industry in the years to come.”
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