7 : Page : Blog : GE Global Research

Edison speaks at the Schenectady Museum!

Tiffany Westendorf
Chemical Technologies And Materials Characterization
Niskayuna, NY USA
View Tiffany Westendorf's profile
subscribe to Tiffany Westendorf's feed

Hey everybody,

There will be more to come on this story in the future, but I just wanted to let you know about a really cool thing one my colleagues, Russ DeMuth, just participated in. Russ is an engineer in the tPower Conversion Systems technology organization and he built his own version of one of Edison’s inventions, the pallophotophone. Why would Russ do this? To help uncover some incredible recordings including some audio of Thomas Edison himself– and the oldest ever recording of the NBC chimes. Ding DING ding!

Check out the story on GE Reports and check back here for more updates. This is pretty incredible!

May 28th, 2010 | Power Conversion Systems

TAGS: edison, employee activities, history

Your requests answered: Popcorn popping in super slow motion

Hi Everyone -

Thanks for all the great ideas. Doug had to travel, but luckily Justin Brumberg and Chris Falcone volunteered and we got some amazing videos in super slow motion. We took all kinds of movies that we’ll be sharing over a series of blog entries in the next few weeks. As a reminder, all the movies are filmed at the same speed as Doug’s eye blinking in our previous blog entry.

For today, we’ll focus on popcorn which was a request from Missa B, who posted a comment on the previous blog.

We used a small bit of oil to pop the kernels and used a torch to heat it from below. The first movie shows what happens when you get a failed popcorn.

The second movie shows a successful pop. One of the main problems we had with this part is that Justin kept on eating the popcorn!

For the last movie, we decided to put 3 kernals together to see what would happen.

So.. after watching these movies – I became curious… why does popcorn pop? A quick search around the web revealed the secrets. A popcorn kernel consists of the pericarp which is the thick, hermetically sealed outer shell and the endosperm which is the internal guts consisting mostly of starch and small amounts of other stuff, including water. Basically, heating the kernel to about 400 F allows the small amount of water inside the kernel to turn into steam.

In doing so, it drives up the pressure inside the kernel to almost 10 atmospheres. This pressure is so high that it ruptures the shell and literally flips the kernel inside-out allowing the endosperm to expand into the white crunchy popcorn that we eat.

Apparently, the ideal kernel contains approximately 13-14% moisture (by weight). Too little, and the steam pressure won’t build-up enough to pop, too much and you’ll end up with smaller popcorns that are kind of chewy. I never realized it was so complicated… I just figured you put it in the microwave, hit the “popcorn” setting and… voila.. a nice tasty treat! Well… that’s probably more than you ever wanted to know about popcorn! We’ve got more movies, as per your requests… but I guess those will have to wait until next time…

May 27th, 2010 | Energy & Propulsion

TAGS: blink of an eye, slow motion videos, videos

Solar Hybrid Systems in Bangalore

Arvind Tiwari, editor
Power Conversion Systems
Bangalore, India
View Arvind Tiwari's profile
subscribe to Arvind Tiwari's feed

On approaching JFWTC one can’t help but notice the solar panels and the small wind turbine perched prominently on the rooftop of one of JFWTC’s buildings. To begin with, we have set up a “Green Lab” powered entirely by the sun and the wind. We have a 2200W installed capacity of GE polycrystalline solar panels, enough to power up an upscale urban home. The mounting system allows us to manually change the inclination of the panels to track the sun throughout the year. Each panel can produce a maximum of about 200W, and on good sunny days here in Bangalore, we often extract about 150W per panel on an average.

Supplementing the solar power is a small rooftop wind turbine that can generate a peak power of about 1kW. Since this system is currently operating in an off-grid (not connected to a grid) mode, we need some form of energy storage to eliminate the intermittent nature of wind and to tide over the hours when the sun is not shining on our part of the world. A lead acid battery bank (48 V nominal) stores the excess power when the generation exceeds the load demand in our system.

Solar chargers extract the maximum power from the panels and feed it into this system. The wind turbine generates a three phase ac signal that is rectified and fed into the battery bank. In general, India has low wind speeds, and such small wind turbines need to be adapted to operate at these low wind speeds to generate a reasonable amount of electricity to be cost effective. At low wind speeds, the turbine does rotate; however, the generated ac voltage is not high enough to overcome the DC link voltage and therefore power is not extracted. A power electronic stage is being constructed to replace the simple rectifier to determine how much extra power can be extracted at the lower wind speeds.

The lead acid batteries used in such systems require frequent replacement, in addition to being not too environmentally friendly. We are looking at a much greener battery for such applications, with a much longer lifetime and therefore lower operating and maintenance cost of such hybrid systems.

Our lab is also evaluating modular, scalable systems for markets like rural India, where our vision is that communities and individuals can buy these hybrid modules of different ratings based on the immediate need and financial capability, and can easily upgrade the system to meet higher energy needs at a later point of time. The “Green Lab” provides us with the perfect platform to test our prototype systems under field like conditions.

You can take a look at our rooftop lab by viewing this video featuring our Global Technology Leader, Juan de Bedout.

May 26th, 2010 | Energy, Power Conversion Systems

TAGS: Bangalore, renewables, solar, Sustainable Energy, wind

Blogging the CDPHP Workforce Challenge

Kristen Brosnan, editor
Ceramic And Metallurgy Technologies
Niskayuna, NY USA
View Kristen Brosnan's profile
subscribe to Kristen Brosnan's feed

Last week, I participated in the CDPHP Workforce Challenge, an annual 3.5 mile race in downtown Albany, NY and this year GE in the had a record turnout – 254 employees!!! (including two other Edison’s Desk bloggers, Andrea Howard and Tiffany Westendorf). The GE team was made up of all the GE sites in the Capital Region. It is a great event that unifies the local GE chapters and promotes health and fitness for GE employees. This year was the largest participation by a private company or organization, and double the participation from 2009. In addition, GE won the Co-Ed division and Women’s division, and placed 3rd in Mens!

In total, there were over 8,600 runners and walkers last Thursday evening, with temperatures nearing the high 80’s. The course started at the Empire State Plaza, taking us up the hill on Madison Avenue and into and around Washington Park, onto Western Avenue, and finally finishing with a much-appreciated downhill back down to the plaza. Special thanks goes out to Judy Guzzo and Aaron Knobloch (our team captains) for organizing the GE team!!!

Tiffany Westendorf and Katelyn Buress model our awesome dry-fit GE healthymagination t-shirts!!!

A small fraction of the GE team members at the plaza after the race!

May 25th, 2010 | Ceramic & Metallurgy Technologies

TAGS: employee activities, healthymagination

Scribing the GE logo with lasers

Hi, I’m Matt Gluesenkamp, an Edison Engineer at GE Global Research. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the invention of the laser, my colleagues Wenwu Zhang, Xi Zhang, and I thought it would be fun to scribe the famous GE logo onto laser target paper with one of the micromachining lasers of the Laser and Metrology Systems Lab here at GE Global Research. The laser used was a 40-watt fiber laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm, and is normally used to scribe patterns onto metals, semiconductors and other “tough” materials. With such a powerful laser zapping just target paper, we didn’t even have to place the paper at the laser’s focal point for a great scribe!

So we had a laser that could burn a pattern in the paper – or right through it, given the chance. The next thing needed was a system that could direct the beam at the proper speed in the pattern of the GE logo. In our micromachining lab, this is pretty simple to do.

First, we load the geometry of the GE logo into a software program. This program then controls two galvanometer scanners, with a mirror mounted on each. The beam hits the first mirror, which directs it left and right, and then hits the second mirror, which directs it up and down. Within one second, we were able to scribe a 2″ wide GE logo onto a piece of black paper.

After working with it for some time now, I still think it’s really cool. But what’s even cooler is that this is just one tool, out of thousands, that we use daily at the research center. The photos below were taken by my friend and colleague, Vijay Paruchuru, who works in the optics lab at GE Global Research. In addition to his work in the lab (and as a volunteer during demonstrations at CES), Vijay is a part-time photographer.