STORIES IN THIS SERIES

TECHNOLOGY

Beleaguered GE seeks a 3‑dimensional fix

PART TWO:
GREENVILLE, S.C. — The shiny metal tube in Kurt Goodwin's hand looks like a magician's work.

A little smaller than a soda can, its thick walls are pierced by a series of holes seemingly drilled lengthwise, surrounding the center passageway. Except on second glance, the holes are uniformly curved. No drill could do that, confirms Goodwin, the leader of General Electric Co.'s $73 million advanced manufacturing center here in Greenville.

Goodwin is happy to show the piece off to a visitor, but no images, thank you. It is still proprietary. CONTINUE READING >>>

TECHNOLOGY

The wonder and woe of GE's turbine business

PART ONE:
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Inside the cavernous General Electric assembly building here, plant manager Gary Wiesner led a visitor to a completed 7HA.02 gas turbine that awaited an application of shrink wrap for its journey to the Tierra Mojada power plant in Guadalajara, Mexico.

A 950,000-pound assemblage of fan blades, combustion chambers, nozzles and igniters — consider it a massive jet engine with a drive shaft down the middle — the HA turbine dwarfed Wiesner.

It is GE's latest wonder. Last year, GE's turbines also became its woe. CONTINUE READING >>>

Advertisement