GE Recalls 62,000 Front-load Washers Citing Injury Hazard

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The MD-80s (& DC-9 & MD-81) have Pratt & Whitney JT8D-xx series engines. They are/were used in Boeing 727s, early 737s and some DC-8s.

No manufacturer is immune to problems...it's pretty amazing more of them don't fail, given the RPM, temperatures and pressures present in those engines - some really good engineering going on.
 
Rising Shipping & Local Labour Costs

Are rapidly negating the benefits of transfering manufacturing of many items overseas.

The local populations of China, Mexico, South America etc are waking up and demanding better wages and or working conditions. Political unstability as in newly elected leaders coming to power and nationalising various industries in whole or part also presents a risk.

OTHO conditions on the ground not only in "Right To Work" states, but former strong union places such as the "Rust Belt"/Mid-West have shifted to bring labour costs down. Indeed for the most part labour unions attempts to force issues by going on strike have gone no where. Some Caterpillar workers recently had to throw in the towel and return to work from a strike out of the very real fear the company would simply pack up their plant and move house.

As Obamacare takes hold and businesses either see a reduction in their employee healthcare costs, or simply shift them all together to the public (via paying employees a lump sum to go out and find their own insurance), that will bring the cost of production down, this should in theory help manufacturing.
 
Yes m'lady

Raise expectations in third-world countries and costs go up just like they did in Detroit over time. Shippers came to want their cut of what US corps were making off 12yo slave girls in China. Corps are also discovering the potential costs of passing off shoddy goods, as in the subject of this thread.

I think most knew the 00's model was not sustainable, even those who fabricated it. They just wanted to grab and go. Many (like me) saw it coming before we had to live through it and find out the hard way. But "the vision thing" isn't a big seller in the halls of power. See "grab and go" above.
 
When Jeff Immelt was interviewed by 60 Minutes this spring they asked him about moving jobs to Brazil from the US in the GE Jet Engine division. I researched this a little more and what they are doing is servicing those engines in Brasil rather then building them there. And it's only for one engine, the one us on the 787 which is problematic on it's own.

60% of GE's income comes from areas other than the USA. And GE only has 133,000 employees in the US, kind of low considering how large a company it is.

As we know GE is trying to bring jobs back to Appliance Park, but what kind of jobs are those? The ones that pay $11.00 per hour with no benefits?
 
777-have ridden on these-typically flights from Wash DC Dulles to Denver or Chicago to catch a flight from Dencer or Chicago to Rapid City,S Dak.The 777 is a very nice plane-did talk to some pilots as I was getting off-had time that day.They preferred "driving" the 777 as opposed to the 747.They felt the 777 had better takeoff ability.And they mentioned that it could operate on one engine.didn't know who built the engines. And one of the 777 I flew on was brand new-had that "new" smell like a new car.So,GE must build the motors for these-or if you were an aircraft purchaser-could you choose another brand engine.Guess with buying planes you can have your choice of engine builder-kinda like with trucks and some tractors.Yes,with turbine engines of all sorts failures do happen-becuase of the high speeds and temps-power plants aren't immune,either-their turbines made be GE or Westinghouse.These are larger than jet engine turbines-run from steam flowing thru them-high pressure and low pressure sections-reheat-med pressure section in fossil fuel steam turbines(this is what makes them so efficient--why power companines want to stay with fossil fuels) Nuclear fuels-the steam system doesn't use reheat.so the efficiency will be slightly less.and these turbines spin generators that have rotors weighing 100-200 tons! and they are spun at 1800,3600 RPM.Both rotors and turbines have "spin sploded" in power plants-can happen when the generator suddenly experiences a "no load" situation-becuase of OL-and overspeeds before the steam throttle closes.When a gen rotor spin splodes-takes out the stator section,too.So both have to be repaired-rewound.
remember there was a large Westinghouse generator production plant in Pensecola Fla,closed a long time ago.Don't know where its operations were transferred to.Now for central power plants-many companies specialize in rebuilding the turbines and generators-GE and Westinghouse made the majority of them.
 
One of the problems with newer next generation jet engines is that the fan blades in the compressors are no longer made of metal, but of carbon fiber material. Spinning at 30,000 RPM or more it has been shown they can fail. It' a problem that
has yet to be totally overcome.
 
I know this is probably crazy

but - I have flown several times in my life. To Cleveland, Tulsa, San Fran, LA, Denver, Kansas City......But I refuse to fly anymore. It suddenly terrified me the thought of all of the intricate details that go into flying a plane and all the little things that could go wrong.........It's SILLY I know, but I can't get past it and I will not get on another one.
 
Crazy but understood

Everything in aircraft is at least double redundant, sometimes triple or quadruple. You're in MUCH more danger driving to the supermarket than flying.

But can't argue with terror. I used to rock climb. Now I'm scared standing on a chair to change a lightbulb.
 
After the talk here of airplane engines Spin-sploding at wrong times-and non metal blades spinning at Vita-Mix speeds-no wonder the ridership on airlines is falling besides the security safety crap.Flying is just no fun anymore!Remember when it was!and the other thing-the killer airline fares!Guess to pay for the fuel and the spin-splode engines.The last time I flew-from Greenville NC to LA--the fare was the price of a new KIRBY!but I did enjoy the benefits of seeing my Sister,Mom,and Brothers and their families-was kinda a family reunion.
 
Sure, airplane engines fail very, very rarely, but airline transit is by far the safest mode of transportation - much better than cars, buses, railroad and so on.

It's no fun going to modern airports and suffering all the scheduling and security indignities, but the odds of meeting your maker are much greater in your own personal car.

Still, for any trip less than about 500 miles, we'll drive, just to avoid the airport/airline BS.
 
Of all the turbo fan engines GE has produced over the years, my favorite will always be the TF-39 they developed for the C-5 Galaxy. You always knew when a C-5 was near just by the sound. It's too bad they're phasing them out :-(
 
Yes,airlines are still the safest forms of mass transit-but I think folks are just getting nervous and tired of the TSA stuff.Once you manage to get on the plane and go to your destination-its not bad-But its not the FLYING thats the issue-but what goes on in between.Rail transit can be safe-its just the Amtrack problems.In other countries the train tavel may actually be safer than the airlines.French TVG , and Japanese high speed rail have better safety records than the airlines at present.
 
RE: Engines Exploding

When you look at a jet engine you'll notice around the front of the engine the metal housing is pretty thick. This is because under the front 1/3 of the engine or so are metal/fiberglass/Kevlar belts. The housing is called a blade containment housing. It's main purpose it contain shrapnel that may come off an engine that has a fan blade failure. It works most of the time. But I would think that there are only about a dozen or so loss of containment engine failures per year. But when they do happen they are dramatic.

But this is not new. Back in the days of props, sometimes prop blades would come loose and when that happened the prop blade may fly through the cabin shearing people in half! Back in the late 60's a Lake Central Airlines Convair 580 had a prop governor seize in flight and a prop blade came through the cabin and sliced off the front third of the aircraft! Needless to say the aircraft crashed.

The airlines want to maximize profit and one way of doing this is paying employees less for the jobs they do. So underpaid staff is more likely to be surly with the passengers who are already nasty from being irritated by the TSA.

Seat pitch (the distance between the seats) used to be 34 inches, it's now 28-30 inches. This means if the person ahead of you reclines their seat, their head is in your lap. Plus some airlines now charge extra for window seats and aisle seats. So buy the time you buy that cheap airfare you still have a lot of costs to pay on top of it. Checked baggage fees, seat fees, etc.

And the airlines have reduced the number of aircraft they have along with the number of flights they have to their various destinations. This means less seats to where you want to go so the flights are mostly packed full. Karen & I thought about non-revving to Chicago but seats are very hard to come by.
 
My neighbor has no trouble non-revving to Minnesota every now and then. He works for American. But then American is bankrupt.

I wonder if they charge the passengers in row 32 extra for the legroom when row 31 comes unbolted from the floor?
 
If I non rev to ORD, it'll be through ATL as Delta offers no direct flights to Chicago. And most service on the Houston-Atlanta service is MD80 or smaller RJ's.
We have a ZED agreement with UA, but IAH-ORD is heavily traveled.

So it might be easier to fly DTW-MSP than IAH-ORD because the DTW-MSP sector is loaded with widebodies headed for Asia. We tried Frontier Houston-Denver-Midway and that's a nice trip, but they reduced the Houston-Denver service to RJ aircraft. When they were using the A319's on that route they were always 100% full.
 
Re out sourcing

Over this side of the pond we are noticing a small, but increasing amount of companies returning some, if not all manufacturing back to the UK as it's cheaper!!

About time I say. I could never see the long term benefit of having someone on the other side of the planet making stuff then shipping it at huge expense for us to save a couple of quid (Bucks).

With regard to spinning grenade washing machines, my Miele 377 which spins at a leisurely 1600 rpm has not yet self destructed after only 13 years use. Will report back if it does. I intend to keep it until I am six feet under.
 
High speed rail

This is nice to think about and wish for-but with the patchwork RR route system in the US-this may be almost impossible-esp for a price that can be paid from the farebox.Grade crossings have to be kept to an absolute minimum if any at all for the high speed trains.You can imagine what happens if a train traveling at 200+ MPH or even 100MPH + collides with a car or truck at a grade crossing-or even a large animal like a steer or cow,or moose in some areas.A high speed derailment would not be pretty-would be as bad as a major arliner wreck-or more so since the train could carry more passengers.It is reported with the TVG train system there are sensors on the track in some areas at the few crossing they have-if an animal,person,or vehicle is on the track-it sends a caution slow down message to the train engineer-if he doesn't take action-turns to automatic breaking and stop.think of the special trackage and other route equipment these trains need,the power generating and conversion for the electric locomotives,the cost of the fleet of rolling stock,then the crews needed to operate and maintain these trains.Each TVG locomotive is rated at 8000Hp!
For airlines how much of the operation is paid for from the "farebox"?Maybe some folks who worked for the airlines has the answer.
In the airplane engines-the containement barriers and shouds make sense.And I have heard of prop planes throwing blades-again rare-but when it happens--BAD.And I used to ride on those Convair 580's-they were FUN to ride.Guess to a plane fan-the prop plane to them is like a steam locomotive to a rail fan.
and not transport-but read about the mowers used for roadside mowing -rotary and flail-their blades are swivel mounted like in some disposers.Sometimes those get thrown-and the blade and debris can fly 300Ft.and the blade can penetrate the mower housing!The person using the mower must make sure the blade assembly doesn't crash into the ground(deck height too low)or colliding with a really hard object.But how many roadside mowers have you passed-LOTS for me-no blade throwing YET.
 
out-sourcing to China

Lets be fair to China here, they are building cheap appliances upon our demand.

The technology is there and China does produce world class engineering however when appliance companies outsource to China they do this to save a buck, they also build appliances on a tiny budget, the only way they can make appliances on this budget is to cut corners.
 
Why, have any of the new GE Ultra Vent front loader washers had problems or been recalled? It would be news to me. It does look like GE did its job on this one, even if it's outsourced to China. After all, a LOT of stuff is outsourced these days.
 

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