[slides image_align="left"]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/AlgeriaMobile1.jpg"]
This image shows a typical GE mobile power plant installation. This Algerian plant includes four TM2500 aeroderivative turbines. They can generate more than 70 megawatts of power.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/AlgeriaMobile2.jpg"]
The modified jet engine peeks from behind the mobile trailer's open door.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/AlgeriaMobile3.jpg"]
Two shrink-wrapped mobile plants just arrived from Houston. Each contains the modified jet engine, controls package, exhaust stack and other parts.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/AlgeriaMobile4.jpg"]
Each mobile plant fits on the back of a tractor trailer.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/AlgeriaMobile5.jpg"]
The desert at dawn.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/AlgeriaMobile6.jpg"]
Workers in the control room are calibrating controls, and testing and checking the equipment.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/AlgeriaMobile7.jpg"]
Every morning workers attend a “safety tail gate” meeting where managers go over safety procedures and discuss any issues with the equipment.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/AlgeriaMobile8.jpg"]
Before power reaches consumers, workers need to assemble transformers, put up transmission lines and connect the mobile electricity generators to the grid.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/AlgeriaMobile9.jpg"]
The GE team at an installation in Algeria.
[/image]
[/slides]
The Tatooine-like landscape of the M’Sila province in northern Algeria provides the country's Mediterranean coast with a rugged bulwark against the encroaching Sahara desert. Despite the arid conditions (M'Sila is quite close to the original Star Wars set), the province is home to 1 million people who need electricity, especially in the summer when temperatures easily top 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Earlier this year, GE started shipping to the area mobile power plants designed to “fast-track” power production and make sure that locals have enough power to turn on their ACs and meet peak electricity demand. Each of the mobile power plants rides on a trailer and holds a modified jet engine that burns natural gas to generate power. The engines are manufactured by GE workers in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the power plants are assembled for shipping by a GE team in Houston, Texas.
The technology, which GE calls aeroderivatives, serves on all continents, with the exception of Antarctica. GE usually sends the plants to their destination by ship, but they can also fit inside huge AN-124 transport planes for immediate delivery. If gas pipelines, concrete support pads and other infrastructure are already in place, workers can get the plants running in just 60 days.
Algeria’s Société Algérienne de Production de l’Electricité (SPE Spa), an affiliate Algeria’s national electricity and gas company Sonelgaz, has ordered 24 such plants from GE. They will generate a combined 538 megawatts of electricity.
The mobile plants are part of a $2.7 billion power generation technology deal announced last Monday. Taken together, the technology, which includes massive gas turbines for co-generation power plants as well as the aeroderivatives, will supply Algeria with nine gigawatts of electricity.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Friday, September 27, 2013
Built For Speed: F1 Team Ushers In NextGen Race Car Using Advanced GE Tech
In Ron Howard’s brand new Formula 1 car-racing movie Rush, the legendary driver Niki Lauda gives his rival James Hunt a sage piece of advice: “To be a champion, it takes more than just being quick.”
Scientists working at GE Global Research (GRC) agree with that sentiment. Their advances in big data analytics and materials science developed in GE labs in the U.S., Germany and India are helping Caterham F1 Team’s Formula 1 race cars perform better. “It’s a win-win partnership for both of us,” says Matt Nielsen, GRC’s principal scientist for controls, electronics, and signal processing. “They are on a very short technology development cycle, often only two weeks between races. We learn how to apply our technology in that time-scale.”
[slides image_align="left"]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Formula1B.jpg"]
The Caterham team is solving problems very similar to what GE engineers do every day. “It’s all very analogous to what we do in the field with gas turbines, aircraft engines and the Industrial Internet,” Nielsen says.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Formula1C.jpg"]
The GE team is focusing on four areas to help the team’s cars get around the course more quickly: big data analytics, fiber-optic sensing, composites manufacturing, and heat management.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Formula1A.jpg"]
Each Caterham car has some 500 sensors buried inside its wheels, engine, gearbox, chassis and elsewhere. Together they generate up to 1,000 data points per second.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Formula1D.jpg"]
“These cars are roving sensor platforms traveling at 200 mph,” says Nielsen, who grew up as an open-wheel racing fan.
[/image]
[/slides]
The GE team is focusing on four areas to help the team’s cars get around the course more quickly: big data analytics, fiber-optic sensing, composites manufacturing, and heat management.
Each Caterham car has some 500 sensors buried inside its wheels, engine, gearbox, chassis and elsewhere. Together they generate up to 1,000 data points per second. “These cars are roving sensor platforms traveling at 200 mph,” says Nielsen, who grew up as an open-wheel racing fan.
The gigabytes of data travel to Caterham’s UK headquarters for analysis, where team engineers combine it with information generated during the development cycle, wind tunnel tests and even from a driver simulation system. “We were shocked by how much data they had,” Nielsen says. “We are helping them look at how they store, assemble and make connections between pieces of data, and pull out those nuggets that help them fine-tune their cars. The analytics developed by GE have the potential to cut Caterham’s data processing by half.
Some of the data may soon come from advanced fiber-optic sensors. The GE team built them to accurately measure the downforce on the front wing below the car’s nose. They believe that the embedded instruments can improve the wing’s design and help the vehicle go faster around turns.
Lauda and Hunt were racing in metal cars, but today’s cars are built mainly from carbon composites. The few exceptions include the engine, the drivetrain, and pipes. GE materials scientists are helping the racing team replace aluminum cooling tubes with composites and reduce weight. “Every ounce adds up,” Nielsen says. “We’ve made good progress and are working to transfer the manufacturing process to them.”
Starting with the 2014 season, F1 will enter a new, super-efficient era. The engines will still generate up to 700 horsepower, but they will be capped at 1.6 liters of displacement and use around a third less fuel than today. To do so, engines will come equipped with advanced turbochargers and energy recovery systems, which will boost performance. GE engineers are helping Caterham design sophisticated intercoolers that reduce the temperature of the air the turbocharger pumps into the engine. “You don’t want a lot of pressure drop, but you want the air as cool as possible,” Nielsen says. “We know a lot about heat transfer and are using that to help build analysis tools for Caterham.”
Nielsen says that the Caterham team is solving problems very similar to what GE engineers do every day. For that reason, there are a number of places where collaboration could lead to insights beyond just F1 racing cars. “It’s all very analogous to what we do in the field with gas turbines, aircraft engines and the Industrial Internet,” he says.
Scientists working at GE Global Research (GRC) agree with that sentiment. Their advances in big data analytics and materials science developed in GE labs in the U.S., Germany and India are helping Caterham F1 Team’s Formula 1 race cars perform better. “It’s a win-win partnership for both of us,” says Matt Nielsen, GRC’s principal scientist for controls, electronics, and signal processing. “They are on a very short technology development cycle, often only two weeks between races. We learn how to apply our technology in that time-scale.”
[slides image_align="left"]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Formula1B.jpg"]
The Caterham team is solving problems very similar to what GE engineers do every day. “It’s all very analogous to what we do in the field with gas turbines, aircraft engines and the Industrial Internet,” Nielsen says.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Formula1C.jpg"]
The GE team is focusing on four areas to help the team’s cars get around the course more quickly: big data analytics, fiber-optic sensing, composites manufacturing, and heat management.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Formula1A.jpg"]
Each Caterham car has some 500 sensors buried inside its wheels, engine, gearbox, chassis and elsewhere. Together they generate up to 1,000 data points per second.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Formula1D.jpg"]
“These cars are roving sensor platforms traveling at 200 mph,” says Nielsen, who grew up as an open-wheel racing fan.
[/image]
[/slides]
The GE team is focusing on four areas to help the team’s cars get around the course more quickly: big data analytics, fiber-optic sensing, composites manufacturing, and heat management.
Each Caterham car has some 500 sensors buried inside its wheels, engine, gearbox, chassis and elsewhere. Together they generate up to 1,000 data points per second. “These cars are roving sensor platforms traveling at 200 mph,” says Nielsen, who grew up as an open-wheel racing fan.
The gigabytes of data travel to Caterham’s UK headquarters for analysis, where team engineers combine it with information generated during the development cycle, wind tunnel tests and even from a driver simulation system. “We were shocked by how much data they had,” Nielsen says. “We are helping them look at how they store, assemble and make connections between pieces of data, and pull out those nuggets that help them fine-tune their cars. The analytics developed by GE have the potential to cut Caterham’s data processing by half.
Some of the data may soon come from advanced fiber-optic sensors. The GE team built them to accurately measure the downforce on the front wing below the car’s nose. They believe that the embedded instruments can improve the wing’s design and help the vehicle go faster around turns.
Lauda and Hunt were racing in metal cars, but today’s cars are built mainly from carbon composites. The few exceptions include the engine, the drivetrain, and pipes. GE materials scientists are helping the racing team replace aluminum cooling tubes with composites and reduce weight. “Every ounce adds up,” Nielsen says. “We’ve made good progress and are working to transfer the manufacturing process to them.”
Starting with the 2014 season, F1 will enter a new, super-efficient era. The engines will still generate up to 700 horsepower, but they will be capped at 1.6 liters of displacement and use around a third less fuel than today. To do so, engines will come equipped with advanced turbochargers and energy recovery systems, which will boost performance. GE engineers are helping Caterham design sophisticated intercoolers that reduce the temperature of the air the turbocharger pumps into the engine. “You don’t want a lot of pressure drop, but you want the air as cool as possible,” Nielsen says. “We know a lot about heat transfer and are using that to help build analysis tools for Caterham.”
Nielsen says that the Caterham team is solving problems very similar to what GE engineers do every day. For that reason, there are a number of places where collaboration could lead to insights beyond just F1 racing cars. “It’s all very analogous to what we do in the field with gas turbines, aircraft engines and the Industrial Internet,” he says.
It Takes a City: Healthcare Partnership in Cincinnati Offers Solution to Rising Medical Costs
The U.S. spends nearly a fifth of its GDP on healthcare, more than any other developed nation. Chronic disease, aging population, childhood obesity and other causes put the system under severe pressure and threaten America’s ability to compete on global markets.
GE, like most U.S. employers, is in the same boat. The company's U.S. employee benefit programs support more than 500,000 workers, their spouses and children, and retirees. With GE's U.S. healthcare costs at more than $2 billion annually, company executives realized they needed solutions to manage the growth.
One focused on changes at the community level. They started in Cincinnati, Ohio, the base of GE Aviation and home for thousands of GE workers. The broad plan included a coalition of large employers, hospitals, insurers, city government and patients. They would be working together to improve healthcare quality in the city, expand access to care and lower costs over the long run.
"If we don't take accountability ourselves for figuring this out, we're part of the problem," Sue Siegel, CEO of GE Ventures, told The New York Times. "We have to be involved in the solution. We can't just wait for someone to tell us that it is going to be fixed."
Starting in February 2010, the partners zeroed in on five areas: primary care, information technology, quality improvement, consumer engagement, and payment innovation. They began collecting metrics like healthcare improvement, outcomes and costs, and tracking goals for the metropolitan area’s 2.2 million residents.
At the same time, the local community invested in primary care, digital records, and customer engagement through websites like yourhealthmatters.org to improve healthcare efficiency and generate better value.
The power of this partnership in Cincinnati can be seen in the results that are coming in, and they encouraging (see report). Cincinnati has become one of the nation’s most medically wired communities. The U.S. government selected the city to participate in the prestigious Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative organized by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. This project alone has the potential to bring $100 million in incentive payments to primary care doctors who improve the coordination of care for their patients.
An analysis of GE’s own medical claims data is also beginning to show gains from such coordinated care. An innovative healthcare model, called Investment in Patient-Centered Medical Homes, helps primary care physicians coordinate treatment for their patients. It has reduced ER visits and hospital admissions. Similarly, quality improvement efforts focused on pediatric asthma and diabetes are beginning to show fewer complications and hospital admissions, and better care. "Early results are promising: patients enrolled in medical homes had 3.5 percent fewer visits to the emergency room and 14 percent fewer hospital admissions over the four years from 2008 through 2012," the Times story said.
The early results were strong enough that GE expanded its community-level efforts to two additional cities in 2012—Erie, Pennsylvania, and Louisville, Kentucky. The company has also partnered with the Clinton Foundation’s new Health Matters Initiative to help build healthy communities nationally.
“Health is an investment we must protect and that means we all have to do things differently,” said Siegel. “Collaborations like this one in Ohio are important to driving sustainable transformation that yields better health and healthcare value for our businesses, our employees, their families and communities.”
GE, like most U.S. employers, is in the same boat. The company's U.S. employee benefit programs support more than 500,000 workers, their spouses and children, and retirees. With GE's U.S. healthcare costs at more than $2 billion annually, company executives realized they needed solutions to manage the growth.
One focused on changes at the community level. They started in Cincinnati, Ohio, the base of GE Aviation and home for thousands of GE workers. The broad plan included a coalition of large employers, hospitals, insurers, city government and patients. They would be working together to improve healthcare quality in the city, expand access to care and lower costs over the long run.
"If we don't take accountability ourselves for figuring this out, we're part of the problem," Sue Siegel, CEO of GE Ventures, told The New York Times. "We have to be involved in the solution. We can't just wait for someone to tell us that it is going to be fixed."
Starting in February 2010, the partners zeroed in on five areas: primary care, information technology, quality improvement, consumer engagement, and payment innovation. They began collecting metrics like healthcare improvement, outcomes and costs, and tracking goals for the metropolitan area’s 2.2 million residents.
At the same time, the local community invested in primary care, digital records, and customer engagement through websites like yourhealthmatters.org to improve healthcare efficiency and generate better value.
The power of this partnership in Cincinnati can be seen in the results that are coming in, and they encouraging (see report). Cincinnati has become one of the nation’s most medically wired communities. The U.S. government selected the city to participate in the prestigious Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative organized by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. This project alone has the potential to bring $100 million in incentive payments to primary care doctors who improve the coordination of care for their patients.
An analysis of GE’s own medical claims data is also beginning to show gains from such coordinated care. An innovative healthcare model, called Investment in Patient-Centered Medical Homes, helps primary care physicians coordinate treatment for their patients. It has reduced ER visits and hospital admissions. Similarly, quality improvement efforts focused on pediatric asthma and diabetes are beginning to show fewer complications and hospital admissions, and better care. "Early results are promising: patients enrolled in medical homes had 3.5 percent fewer visits to the emergency room and 14 percent fewer hospital admissions over the four years from 2008 through 2012," the Times story said.
The early results were strong enough that GE expanded its community-level efforts to two additional cities in 2012—Erie, Pennsylvania, and Louisville, Kentucky. The company has also partnered with the Clinton Foundation’s new Health Matters Initiative to help build healthy communities nationally.
“Health is an investment we must protect and that means we all have to do things differently,” said Siegel. “Collaborations like this one in Ohio are important to driving sustainable transformation that yields better health and healthcare value for our businesses, our employees, their families and communities.”
Thursday, September 26, 2013
#GEInstaWalk: GE Loosed Instagrammers at an Engine Testing Facility, See What Happened
The words jet engine testing call to mind the heady days of Chuck Yeager pulling Mach 2.44 over the California desert. These days, the testing tends more toward the high-tech than cowboy, but it’s no less awesome a site to behold. That’s why GE recently loosed a gaggle of Instagram photographers on GE Aviation’s Peebles Test Operation in Ohio to document the space age facilities. We called it the first ever #GEInstaWalk.
The six winning photographers were plucked from the photo-sharing network to join a crack team of GE’s regular Instagram contributors at the test facility. There, they photographed the black “turbulence control structure” that looks part Death Star, part Buckyball. They also got shots of engines like the ultraquiet and efficient GEnx and the LEAP-1A, a next-gen power plant equipped with carbon-fiber composite blades, 3D-printed fuel nozzles and parts made from ceramic matrix composites.
See the slideshow of some of the day’s best captures below.
[slides image_align="left"]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk5.jpg"]
Lindsay Crowder framed the turbulence control structure against the wispy clouds in the sky.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk2.jpg"]
Chris Ozer captured the play of light on the honeycomb-like matrix of the turbulence control structure.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk4.jpg"]
Dan Cole got this shot of a test stand at the Peebles facility.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk1.jpg"]
Adam Senatori got up close and personal with the fan blades of a GEnx engine.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk6.jpg"]
Tyson Edwards found fans at the Peebles Test Operation.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk3.jpg"]
Christian Cannon snapped Tyson Edwards jumping over a 55-foot wind tunnel at GE’s Peebles Test Operation.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk7.jpg"]
Tyson Edwards captured this feat of strength.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk8.jpg"]
A Chris Ozer shot from inside the test facility.
[/image]
[/slides]
The six winning photographers were plucked from the photo-sharing network to join a crack team of GE’s regular Instagram contributors at the test facility. There, they photographed the black “turbulence control structure” that looks part Death Star, part Buckyball. They also got shots of engines like the ultraquiet and efficient GEnx and the LEAP-1A, a next-gen power plant equipped with carbon-fiber composite blades, 3D-printed fuel nozzles and parts made from ceramic matrix composites.
See the slideshow of some of the day’s best captures below.
[slides image_align="left"]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk5.jpg"]
Lindsay Crowder framed the turbulence control structure against the wispy clouds in the sky.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk2.jpg"]
Chris Ozer captured the play of light on the honeycomb-like matrix of the turbulence control structure.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk4.jpg"]
Dan Cole got this shot of a test stand at the Peebles facility.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk1.jpg"]
Adam Senatori got up close and personal with the fan blades of a GEnx engine.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk6.jpg"]
Tyson Edwards found fans at the Peebles Test Operation.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk3.jpg"]
Christian Cannon snapped Tyson Edwards jumping over a 55-foot wind tunnel at GE’s Peebles Test Operation.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk7.jpg"]
Tyson Edwards captured this feat of strength.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/InstaWalk8.jpg"]
A Chris Ozer shot from inside the test facility.
[/image]
[/slides]
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Great Lakes Mystery: Wreck Hunter Hopes GE CT Scanner Can Identify 300-Year Old Ship
It was a good day for sailing on Sept. 18, 1679, when the French ship Le Griffon left an island harbor in Lake Michigan’s Green Bay. A light wind blew from the west, perfect conditions for the vessel’s voyage to Niagara Falls to pick up supplies.
But good weather in the morning, as any visitor to the Great Lakes knows, can turn foul before breakfast ends. A storm came up on the water the day after the 45-ton, three-masted ship set sail. Neither it nor its crew of six was ever seen again.
That is until now, if explorers who have been searching for Le Griffon, also known as the Griffin, for years are correct. They used the latest GE medical imaging technology to shed new light, or rather X-rays, on the 300-year old mystery.
In 2001, diver and history enthusiast Steve Libert found a strange piece of timber sticking out of the muddy bottom of Lake Michigan. Libert says he’s been obsessed with studying and locating the ship since he was a schoolboy in Ohio. He suspected the wood might be the Griffon’s bowsprit, the pole that extends out from the front of a sailing ship. “There was no question about it—that this was definitely man-made,” he says. “I’ve been researching this ship since I was 14. I’m 99.9 percent sure it’s the Griffon.”
He was hoping that the 20-ft.-long oak pole would be just the highest piece of the shipwreck that was buried in the mud beneath it, but divers who excavated the lake bottom found nothing else below it. “My hypothesis is that the bowsprit became dislodged from the ship as it was sinking and the storm moved the rest of it somewhere else,” Libert says.
But whether the wood is actually a piece of a ship is still in question, as is how old it is. Several different groups of laboratory scientists and archaeologists are analyzing it to determine its provenance.
Libert’s team sent samples for radiocarbon dating, a method of determining organic matter’s age range by measuring the decay of carbon inside it. So far, the tests have not ruled out the possibility that the wood was cut in the late 17th century. “Apparently the Griffon was built in AD 1679,” wrote Darden Hood, the director of carbon dating lab Beta Analytic, which analyzed one sample several years ago. “The results do support an AD 1679 time of death of the wood used in such a construction. However, it is clear that other lines of evidence are needed to exclude temporal possibilities extending all the way to AD 1950.”
Libert says the most recent round of radiocarbon dating by Beta Analytic came back on Sept. 23. Their analysis, he says, revealed with 95 percent probability that the beam came from a tree cut down sometime between 1680 and 1740.
In June, they recovered the whole 600-pound object from the lake’s icy waters. To get more data about the tree from which it was shaped, they needed to peer inside at the wood’s annual rings. But to count the rings, they would have needed to either drill into the pole to pull out a core or cut out a slice. Either method would have damaged the object. Instead, they called Carol Griggs at Cornell University’s tree-ring laboratory to solicit ideas. She offered an innovative potential solution: put the artifact into a medical CT scanner. Such devices use X-rays to take successive cross-sectional pictures, or virtual slices, of the body.
So they called Otsego Memorial Hospital in Gaylord, Mich., near their storage site to see if the facility had any equipment that would be up to the task. They were lucky. Hospital officials said they had a CT scanner made by GE that might be able to do the job.
In late August, Libert and five other crew members carried the timber into the hospital and loaded it into the GE LightSpeed VCT* XT 64-slice CT scanner. In seconds, the scans started popping up on a monitor. Radiology technicians whose jobs typically had them interacting with patients, counted 29 clearly visible rings. “The images from the CT scan were nothing less than fantastic!” said Libert. “I attribute this to an excellent piece of well-designed, technological equipment along with a highly trained group of professionals at the hospital.”
The scans were sent to Cornell University’s tree-ring laboratory so specialists there could match the rings to others in their database. This might yield a better estimate of the tree’s age when it was felled. Libert expects Cornell’s analysis to be completed soon, though he cautioned that deterioration at the bottom of Lake Michigan might have damaged the beam beyond reasonable classification. “The machine was able to image 29 rings, which might not be enough,” he says. “Still, the tree-ring lab was extremely excited the scanner could even image that much.”
Not everyone is convinced the object was part of the Griffon, even if it turns out to be the right age. An Associated Press story said that Michigan's state archaeologist contends it could be a stake from a "pound net," a type of fishing gear used for centuries in which fishermen strung nets between poles rammed into the lake’s bottom.
But contrary hypotheses won’t deter Libert, he says. If the age-detecting techniques they’re using determine that the artifact is from the late 17th century, his crew will venture back out to the vicinity of where they found it to continue their search for the rest of the vessel.
“If it turns out that this is the bowsprit of the Griffon, I believe the rest of the wreck is within four or five football fields of it,” Libert says. “I expect to find that ship intact.”
*Trademark of the General Electric Co.
But good weather in the morning, as any visitor to the Great Lakes knows, can turn foul before breakfast ends. A storm came up on the water the day after the 45-ton, three-masted ship set sail. Neither it nor its crew of six was ever seen again.
That is until now, if explorers who have been searching for Le Griffon, also known as the Griffin, for years are correct. They used the latest GE medical imaging technology to shed new light, or rather X-rays, on the 300-year old mystery.
In 2001, diver and history enthusiast Steve Libert found a strange piece of timber sticking out of the muddy bottom of Lake Michigan. Libert says he’s been obsessed with studying and locating the ship since he was a schoolboy in Ohio. He suspected the wood might be the Griffon’s bowsprit, the pole that extends out from the front of a sailing ship. “There was no question about it—that this was definitely man-made,” he says. “I’ve been researching this ship since I was 14. I’m 99.9 percent sure it’s the Griffon.”
Steve Libert used a GE CT scanner to count the tree rings inside a 600-pound beam recovered the bottom of Lake Michigan. He hopes the rings will help him tie the beam to the Griffon which disappeared 300 years ago. Credit: Steve Libert/Great Lakes Exploration
He was hoping that the 20-ft.-long oak pole would be just the highest piece of the shipwreck that was buried in the mud beneath it, but divers who excavated the lake bottom found nothing else below it. “My hypothesis is that the bowsprit became dislodged from the ship as it was sinking and the storm moved the rest of it somewhere else,” Libert says.
But whether the wood is actually a piece of a ship is still in question, as is how old it is. Several different groups of laboratory scientists and archaeologists are analyzing it to determine its provenance.
Libert’s team sent samples for radiocarbon dating, a method of determining organic matter’s age range by measuring the decay of carbon inside it. So far, the tests have not ruled out the possibility that the wood was cut in the late 17th century. “Apparently the Griffon was built in AD 1679,” wrote Darden Hood, the director of carbon dating lab Beta Analytic, which analyzed one sample several years ago. “The results do support an AD 1679 time of death of the wood used in such a construction. However, it is clear that other lines of evidence are needed to exclude temporal possibilities extending all the way to AD 1950.”
In 2001, diver and history enthusiast Steve Libert found a strange piece of timber sticking out of the muddy bottom of Lake Michigan. Libert says he’s been obsessed with studying and locating the Griffon since he was a schoolboy in Ohio. Credit: Steve Libert/Great Lakes Exploration
Libert says the most recent round of radiocarbon dating by Beta Analytic came back on Sept. 23. Their analysis, he says, revealed with 95 percent probability that the beam came from a tree cut down sometime between 1680 and 1740.
In June, they recovered the whole 600-pound object from the lake’s icy waters. To get more data about the tree from which it was shaped, they needed to peer inside at the wood’s annual rings. But to count the rings, they would have needed to either drill into the pole to pull out a core or cut out a slice. Either method would have damaged the object. Instead, they called Carol Griggs at Cornell University’s tree-ring laboratory to solicit ideas. She offered an innovative potential solution: put the artifact into a medical CT scanner. Such devices use X-rays to take successive cross-sectional pictures, or virtual slices, of the body.
So they called Otsego Memorial Hospital in Gaylord, Mich., near their storage site to see if the facility had any equipment that would be up to the task. They were lucky. Hospital officials said they had a CT scanner made by GE that might be able to do the job.
In late August, Libert and five other crew members carried the timber into the hospital and loaded it into the GE LightSpeed VCT* XT 64-slice CT scanner. In seconds, the scans started popping up on a monitor. Radiology technicians whose jobs typically had them interacting with patients, counted 29 clearly visible rings. “The images from the CT scan were nothing less than fantastic!” said Libert. “I attribute this to an excellent piece of well-designed, technological equipment along with a highly trained group of professionals at the hospital.”
The scans were sent to Cornell University’s tree-ring laboratory so specialists there could match the rings to others in their database. This might yield a better estimate of the tree’s age when it was felled. Libert expects Cornell’s analysis to be completed soon, though he cautioned that deterioration at the bottom of Lake Michigan might have damaged the beam beyond reasonable classification. “The machine was able to image 29 rings, which might not be enough,” he says. “Still, the tree-ring lab was extremely excited the scanner could even image that much.”
Not everyone is convinced the object was part of the Griffon, even if it turns out to be the right age. An Associated Press story said that Michigan's state archaeologist contends it could be a stake from a "pound net," a type of fishing gear used for centuries in which fishermen strung nets between poles rammed into the lake’s bottom.
But contrary hypotheses won’t deter Libert, he says. If the age-detecting techniques they’re using determine that the artifact is from the late 17th century, his crew will venture back out to the vicinity of where they found it to continue their search for the rest of the vessel.
“If it turns out that this is the bowsprit of the Griffon, I believe the rest of the wreck is within four or five football fields of it,” Libert says. “I expect to find that ship intact.”
*Trademark of the General Electric Co.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Blades and Bones: The Many Faces of 3D Printing
GE started testing its first jet engine that contains 3D printed parts last week. A big step for advanced manufacturing, for sure, but just the beginning of the 3D printing revolution. Like ordinary machining, 3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, spans a wide gamut of technologies for many different applications, from rapid prototyping to producing designs previously impossible to make.
Engineers and designers are not the only ones excited about the technology. A recent Citi Research report noted that GE has been investing for a decade in additive manufacturing and “has developed a strength in high-end metals and ceramics. This has been commercialized in fuel nozzles in aviation but is expected to have many additional applications across GE industrial businesses.” Take a look at our slideshow:
[slides image_align="left"]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Additive1.jpg"]
This lattice cube, which was made from titanium on an electron beam melting machine (EBM), resembles a bone chip. There is a good reason. The "organic" design makes it about one third of the weight of a solid cube while maintaining the solid’s compression strength. This technology could deliver huge material savings and weight reduction.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Additive3.jpg"]
This hand was 3D printed on an Objet Connex500 machine that can use two different resins at the same time. In this example, designers used a hard resin for the bones and a soft one for the flesh. GE is not moving into making body parts, yet, but 3D printing is helping engineers rapidly prototype and test their designs, and speed up parts development.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Additive2.jpg"]
This example of a high-pressure turbine blade was made from a cobalt-chrome alloy on another type of 3D printer, the direct metal laser melting (DMLM) machine. This machine uses lasers to melt layers of metal powder into the final shape. The blade contains intricate cooling channels that would be otherwise difficult to manufacture. It is a good example of the new freedoms enjoyed by designers using additive manufacturing to make metal parts.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/AddSlide1.jpg"]
Like the turbine blade, this replica of a fuel nozzle was printed on a DMLM machine from a cobalt-chrome alloy. The method can achieve intricate internal geometries shown on the next slide.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/AddSlide2.jpg"]
This image shows the internal geometries of the fuel nozzle that would be difficult to make using conventional manufacturing methods. A part this complex would normally require the welding together of over 20 different components. An additive manufacturing machine can build it as one piece.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Additive6.jpg"]
This porous titanium sphere was made on an EBM machine. It illustrates the power of the additive technology. Before 3D printing came along, engineers were not able to cast or manufacture such complex shapes.
[/image]
[/slides]
Engineers and designers are not the only ones excited about the technology. A recent Citi Research report noted that GE has been investing for a decade in additive manufacturing and “has developed a strength in high-end metals and ceramics. This has been commercialized in fuel nozzles in aviation but is expected to have many additional applications across GE industrial businesses.” Take a look at our slideshow:
[slides image_align="left"]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Additive1.jpg"]
This lattice cube, which was made from titanium on an electron beam melting machine (EBM), resembles a bone chip. There is a good reason. The "organic" design makes it about one third of the weight of a solid cube while maintaining the solid’s compression strength. This technology could deliver huge material savings and weight reduction.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Additive3.jpg"]
This hand was 3D printed on an Objet Connex500 machine that can use two different resins at the same time. In this example, designers used a hard resin for the bones and a soft one for the flesh. GE is not moving into making body parts, yet, but 3D printing is helping engineers rapidly prototype and test their designs, and speed up parts development.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Additive2.jpg"]
This example of a high-pressure turbine blade was made from a cobalt-chrome alloy on another type of 3D printer, the direct metal laser melting (DMLM) machine. This machine uses lasers to melt layers of metal powder into the final shape. The blade contains intricate cooling channels that would be otherwise difficult to manufacture. It is a good example of the new freedoms enjoyed by designers using additive manufacturing to make metal parts.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/AddSlide1.jpg"]
Like the turbine blade, this replica of a fuel nozzle was printed on a DMLM machine from a cobalt-chrome alloy. The method can achieve intricate internal geometries shown on the next slide.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/AddSlide2.jpg"]
This image shows the internal geometries of the fuel nozzle that would be difficult to make using conventional manufacturing methods. A part this complex would normally require the welding together of over 20 different components. An additive manufacturing machine can build it as one piece.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Additive6.jpg"]
This porous titanium sphere was made on an EBM machine. It illustrates the power of the additive technology. Before 3D printing came along, engineers were not able to cast or manufacture such complex shapes.
[/image]
[/slides]
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Tall Order: 11-Foot Jet Engine - World's Largest - Will Power Lufthansa's New Aircraft Fleet
Lufthansa became the first airline to select for its fleet Boeing's next-generation 777X aircraft powered by GE’s advanced GE9X engines. The engines for the 34 planes are valued at more than $2.5 billion. The GE9X will use high-tech parts and materials like 3D printed fuel nozzles, fourth-generation composite blades, and special ceramic matrix composites.
The GE9X builds on more than two decades of GE research and development that involved hundreds of engineers and scientists exploring the boundaries of materials science, thermodynamics, and jet engine design. It will usher in a new generation of the GE90 engine family.
[slides image_align="left"]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Lufthansa1.jpg"]
Want a lift? The GE9X is the offspring of the world's most powerful engine, the GE90, in the picture above.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Lufthansa2.jpg"]
“The GE90 777 essentially opened the globe up to incredibly efficient twin-powered wide-body planes,” says David Joyce, president and CEO of GE Aviation.
[/image]
[/slides]
In 1990, GE launched the GE90, the world’s largest and most powerful jet engine for Boeing’s 777 aircraft. Until then, airlines could not fly wide-body planes across oceans and continents with just two engines under the wings. “The GE90 777 essentially opened the globe up to incredibly efficient twin-powered wide-body planes,” says David Joyce, president and CEO of GE Aviation.
The engine used fan blades made from a carbon fiber composite rather than metal for the first time in aviation history. “The design team woke up every morning thinking about the GE90 and went to bed every night thinking about the GE90 because it was such a radical change in design,” Joyce says. “No other jet engine manufacturer has composite fan blades in service today.”
The material allowed engineers to reduce the number of blades and build a larger engine. The fan’s 10-foot 8-inch diameter increased the amount of air bypassing the engine, improved thrust and boosted efficiency. “No one had thought about this, or if they had, it was not within the art of possibilities for most design teams,” Joyce says. (The blade that the GE team came up with was so comely that New York’s Museum of Modern Art included it in its design collection.)
But GE engineers kept improving on the blade. They reduced the number of blades from 22 inside the GE90-115, to 18 in the follow-up engine, the GEnx, developed for the Dreamliner. Joyce says that GE will be on its fourth-generation of carbon fiber blades by the time the GE9X enters service later in this decade. It will have only 16 blades even though their 11-foot diameter will be larger than the GE 90 fan. These innovations combined with a new composite fan case and lightweight ceramic materials inside the engine will shave hundreds of pounds from the machine, and improve its fuel efficiency.
The ceramics, for example, were developed by scientists at GE Aviation and GE Global Research. They can perform at temperatures as high as 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit – in hotter conditions than any alloy can handle. Engineers call the material ceramic matrix composites (CMCs). Like their carbon-fiber cousins, they are much lighter than the metal equivalent. CMC parts in the combustor and turbine will allow the GE9X to burn less fuel than the GE90-115B, which is already part of GE's ecomagination portfolio. “There’s not a component in that engine that does not come through some form of very advanced technology,” Joyce says.
Engineers have been testing the materials and technologies for the new engine for several years. They ran fan-blade tests at the ITP engine-testing facility in the United Kingdom. This month they will assess the engine’s high-pressure compressor at a GE Oil & Gas facility in Massa, Italy.
GE has delivered more than 1,500 GE90 engines to Boeing. The aircraft maker is now using the GE90-115B engine exclusively to power the latest generation of its 777 planes, the 777-300ER, the 777-200LR and also 777 freighters. The Boeing 777 is the world’s most successful twin-engine, long-haul airplane.
The GE9X builds on more than two decades of GE research and development that involved hundreds of engineers and scientists exploring the boundaries of materials science, thermodynamics, and jet engine design. It will usher in a new generation of the GE90 engine family.
[slides image_align="left"]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Lufthansa1.jpg"]
Want a lift? The GE9X is the offspring of the world's most powerful engine, the GE90, in the picture above.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Lufthansa2.jpg"]
“The GE90 777 essentially opened the globe up to incredibly efficient twin-powered wide-body planes,” says David Joyce, president and CEO of GE Aviation.
[/image]
[/slides]
In 1990, GE launched the GE90, the world’s largest and most powerful jet engine for Boeing’s 777 aircraft. Until then, airlines could not fly wide-body planes across oceans and continents with just two engines under the wings. “The GE90 777 essentially opened the globe up to incredibly efficient twin-powered wide-body planes,” says David Joyce, president and CEO of GE Aviation.
The engine used fan blades made from a carbon fiber composite rather than metal for the first time in aviation history. “The design team woke up every morning thinking about the GE90 and went to bed every night thinking about the GE90 because it was such a radical change in design,” Joyce says. “No other jet engine manufacturer has composite fan blades in service today.”
The material allowed engineers to reduce the number of blades and build a larger engine. The fan’s 10-foot 8-inch diameter increased the amount of air bypassing the engine, improved thrust and boosted efficiency. “No one had thought about this, or if they had, it was not within the art of possibilities for most design teams,” Joyce says. (The blade that the GE team came up with was so comely that New York’s Museum of Modern Art included it in its design collection.)
But GE engineers kept improving on the blade. They reduced the number of blades from 22 inside the GE90-115, to 18 in the follow-up engine, the GEnx, developed for the Dreamliner. Joyce says that GE will be on its fourth-generation of carbon fiber blades by the time the GE9X enters service later in this decade. It will have only 16 blades even though their 11-foot diameter will be larger than the GE 90 fan. These innovations combined with a new composite fan case and lightweight ceramic materials inside the engine will shave hundreds of pounds from the machine, and improve its fuel efficiency.
The ceramics, for example, were developed by scientists at GE Aviation and GE Global Research. They can perform at temperatures as high as 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit – in hotter conditions than any alloy can handle. Engineers call the material ceramic matrix composites (CMCs). Like their carbon-fiber cousins, they are much lighter than the metal equivalent. CMC parts in the combustor and turbine will allow the GE9X to burn less fuel than the GE90-115B, which is already part of GE's ecomagination portfolio. “There’s not a component in that engine that does not come through some form of very advanced technology,” Joyce says.
Engineers have been testing the materials and technologies for the new engine for several years. They ran fan-blade tests at the ITP engine-testing facility in the United Kingdom. This month they will assess the engine’s high-pressure compressor at a GE Oil & Gas facility in Massa, Italy.
GE has delivered more than 1,500 GE90 engines to Boeing. The aircraft maker is now using the GE90-115B engine exclusively to power the latest generation of its 777 planes, the 777-300ER, the 777-200LR and also 777 freighters. The Boeing 777 is the world’s most successful twin-engine, long-haul airplane.
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