As we celebrate the holiday season with family and friends and get ready for the New Year ahead, we look back on 2018 and recall some of the top technology highlights.
These technologies are helping to build stronger GE businesses, while also expanding our technology portfolio with external strategic partners and creating new commercial opportunities to rev up GE’s innovation engine for 2019.
For GE … innovative products and solutions
#1. Clean power where and whenever it’s needed
In March, GE Power launched the Reservoir, a comprehensive energy storage platform originated, developed and productized at GE Research.
#2. A new Digital “MRO” to reduce the turnaround time of servicing jet engines
With a fleet of ~37,000 jet engines, GE Aviation’s services portfolio represents one of the largest growth opportunities for the business. One of the keys to growing this portfolio is implementing new digital solutions to improve their capacity for servicing our jet engines. GE researchers are helping by integrating new in-situ inspection and materials technologies with fleet and shop operations to optimize Aviation’s maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) enterprise. The Digital MRO is more accurately forecasting when engines will need to be taken off the aircraft, and it is also predicting during engine operation prior to removal the level of component replacement required at the overhaul.
#3. Channeling energy into therapies
This year, the GE Research’s bioelectric medicine team is driving some exciting research with external partners like DARPA, using energy to communicate with the nervous system to treat diabetes and other chronic inflammatory diseases in preclinical studies. The non-invasive, stimulation techniques being developed could one day replace drug treatments with no side effects for patients.
#4. Flying autonomously and safely with Edge Controls
From power plants and 3D printers to small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), GE Research’s Edge operating system has been integrated and driving real applications for our businesses. Most recently, the Edge operating system was successfully used with GE Aviation and AiRXOS, a GE Venture working to bring autonomous technologies to commercial aerial robotics, to manage the command and controls of a first-of-its-kind autonomous sUAS flight that was able to safely avoid other aircraft, manned or unmanned, in the air on its own.
#5. Industrializing Immunotherapy
New immunotherapy cancer treatments are demonstrating promising clinical efficacy by personalizing cancer-killing cells. However, commercial manufacturing processes are still rooted in hands-on research-scale methods. With our goal of setting the industry standard in cell therapy tools, a cross-disciplinary GE Research team has developed novel prototypes automating the cell therapy workflow. These devices have been deployed to industry-leading customers and the team is transitioning the technology to GE Healthcare for productization. To learn more about our expertise and work in this space -click here-.
#6. Sunny, windy days ideal weather for making electricity
who else could bring the sun and wind together in a perfect storm of energy generation than GE engineers? GE Renewables recently announced a first-of-its-kind wind/solar hybrid project with Juhl Energy, which uses GE's Wind Integrated Solar Energy (WiSE) technology platform – developed at GE Research - to directly integrate solar panels through the wind turbine's converter and bring these two renewable resources together in perfect harmony.
For the world … external partnerships to innovate what the world needs
#7. “Iron-clad” resilient Nuclear Plants
Responding to the call to make nuclear plants even more resistant to the most severe of natural disasters, GE Research is leading a $33.7 MM project from the U.S. Department of Energy to demonstrate new fuel rods that could be commercially deployed and set new standards in plant safety. GE researchers are working with Global Nuclear Fuel, a GE-led joint venture, the National Labs and two major utilities on the two and a half- year project.
#8. Making 3D parts faster any time, any place
From the North Pole to ships at sea, imagine having the ability to rapidly design new parts or re-engineer and print replacement parts no longer being manufactured using 3D printing. GE researchers were awarded a four-year, $9 million program from the Office of Naval Research to develop a rapid process for creating exact digital models of new or replacement parts for ships, aircraft, and other critical military assets that could be produced on a 3D printer at sea or just about anywhere they’re needed. Now that’s a capability Santa’s elves could use!
#9. CO2 that makes cleaner electricity
Typically, CO2 is an emissions culprit in fossil fuel power generation. GE Research’s 10MW supercritical CO2 turbine is turning this conventional wisdom on its head. The Center and our turbine is part of a $119 MM project with the US Department of Energy to demonstrate a next generation high efficiency, lower cost electric power plant.
#10. The Ghost of Power Plants’ Future
GE researchers are merging digital and physical knowhow to build the world’s first industrial immune system called Digital Ghost. As part of three projects totaling nearly $13 MM with the Department of Energy, GE researchers will be developing this advanced cyber protection technology to protect power plants, wind farms and more from cyber threats.
For our strategic partners … solving your toughest problems
#11. Solving your toughest material challenges
GE Research has some of the world’s best material characterization experts and facilities that have accumulated decades of knowledge about every metal, ceramic, plastic and other materials going into GE products. As we continue to support our businesses, we’ve also opened our doors to new partners outside GE that are benefitting from our expertise. Have a material challenge? Reach out to us -here-.
#12. Delivering electronic devices with higher power density in smaller, more efficient “packages” right out of GE Research’s Cleanroom
GE researchers are developing novel electronic packaging solutions in our 28,000 sq. ft. Cleanroom space to enable deeper capabilities across a diverse set of industrial assets and systems. One of these solutions is called Power Overlay, a packaging and electronics integration platform for power, telecommunication and consumer electronics applications. This platform is used by GE Aviation Systems today in their electric power devices and has been licensed to multiple high volume capable manufacturers that has resulted in a high-quality supply chain for GE and licensing revenue opportunities for GE Ventures.
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