GE Aviation will open a new assembly plant in Indiana to build the world’s first passenger jet engine with 3D printed fuel nozzles and next-generation materials, including heat-resistant ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) and breakthrough carbon fiber fan blades woven in all three dimensions at once.
Though the engine, called LEAP, will not enter service until 2016, it has already become GE Aviation’s bestselling engine, with more than 6,000 confirmed orders from 20 countries, valued at more than $78 billion (U.S. list price).
Wind farms have delivered 30 percent of all new American power generating capacity for the last five years. Wind also supplied more than 4 percent of all U.S. electricity for the first time in 2013, according to new data published by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). States like Iowa and South Dakota now get more than a quarter of their power from wind.
The AWEA study also found that the amount of power generated by wind turbines grew by 200 percent since 2008, “exceeding capacity growth and making [wind] electricity cheaper than ever.”
When Garthen Leslie worked at the Department of Energy, his job was to conserve resources. But at home, his air conditioner was wasting them. “I was tired of choosing between wasting energy or suffering through the stuffy summer heat.” His summertime dilemma got him thinking about developing a smart AC that he could control from his office.
Leslie came up with a sleek design and pitched the idea to Quirky, an online community of some 2,000 designers. Quirky and GE, which provided AC engineering know-know, helped him improve and finish the machine in just a few of months. Called Aros, it will be available for sale to everyone on Amazon, starting today.
Scientists working in GE labs have developed tiny electrical switches thinner than a human hair that can transmit kilowatts of power. They are called micro-electro-mechanical systems, or MEMS.
The technology’s DNA is built around industrial applications, and MEMS could help reduce waste heat and power consumption in medical devices, aviation systems and other GE products.
But the researchers are also working on miniaturized applications for smartphones and tablets using the next-generation LTE-Advanced, or “True 4G,” wireless standard.
Jay Rogers, a former marine with an MBA from Harvard, and his friend Jeff Jones were still in business school when they hit upon an idea that could one day remake American manufacturing. In 2008, they started an online car company where people could collaborate on design and build their vehicles in a network of local “microfactories.” They called it Local Motors.
The next year, Local Motors produced the world’s first open-source car, the Rally Fighter. The business has since evolved into a “vehicle” company and developed a motorbike, skateboards, motorcycle helmets and other products.
The first Industrial Revolution was about machines, the second about technology, and the third will take place inside the “Brilliant Factory,” says Christine Furstoss, global technology director at GE Global Research.
When a severe heat wave gripped Buenos Aires last month, overworked ACs triggered waves of blackouts that rolled over the metropolis for weeks. With little visibility on which neighborhoods would be affected and for how long, thousands of residents were left in the dark – literally and figuratively. “The uncertainty and the lack of information were almost as depressing as the blackouts,” Celeste Acosta, a local community manager, told Smart Planet.
Millions of American families have already embraced connected devices like smart meters to control their electricity bills. Now San Diego will soon become the first U.S. city to link its street lights to the Industrial Internet via an “intelligent” lighting system called LightGrid. The new system, which was developed by GE Lighting, will replace 3,000 city lamps with LED lights equipped with GPS beacons and wireless controls technology to measure and manage energy usage.
Many people are still struggling with the idea of printing solid, three-dimensional objects from a digital file. But 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is rapidly maturing from a novelty technology into an industrial-scale production method.
GE has been exploring additive technologies for more than two decades, and GE Oil & Gas, one of the company’s fastest growing units, has just announced that it will start 3D printing metal fuel nozzles for gas turbines and other components later this year. The company expects to move into production in 2015.
GE (NYSE: GE) and the NFL announced today 16 winners in the first stage of the $20 million “Head Health Challenge.” Each of the winners will receive a $300,000 award to advance their work to speed diagnosis and improve treatment for mild traumatic brain injury. GE and the NFL will provide mentorship, access to GE researchers and industry thought leaders with the opportunity for up to six of the awardees to win an additional $500,000 award in 2015.
