General Electric Company

Alan Silvia

Jeffrey Michael Breznak

Andrew Batton Witney

Steven Louis Breitenbach

Jonathan Tropp Salkin

William Edward Babcock

A dual-torch welding system is disclosed. In one embodiment, the welding system includes a pair of torches positioned in an other than opposing arrangement to weld a substantially circular component therebetween, and a means for rotating the substantially circular component and the pair of torches relative to one another, allowing welding of the substantially circular component by the pair of torches.

Dual-torch welding system

Heat treatment processes for hardening a workpiece such as a turbine blade include attaching a spacer to a workpiece surface, wherein the spacer comprises an inner profile mirroring the workpiece surface and an outer profile effective to generally uniformly distribute heat to the workpiece surface, heating the spacer to uniformly heat the workpiece surface at a temperature effective to form an austenitic microstructure in the workpiece surface, cooling the workpiece surface at a rate effective to transform the austenitic microstructure to a martensitic microstructure, and removing the spacer from the workpiece prior to or subsequent to cooling.

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Clifton Park, NY, United States of America

Alan Silvia