Patent ID: 7507933

Claim:
A method for fabricating a rotor shaft using a welding process, said method comprising: positioning a first rotor shaft section adjacent a second rotor shaft section such that a backing portion of the first rotor shaft section is positioned radially inward from the second rotor shaft section; and creating a weld within a gap defined between the first and second rotor shaft sections, wherein the weld includes a first weld portion and a second weld portion, said step of creating a weld comprises: welding the first weld portion adjacent a root opening at a first heat input using a submerged arc welding (SAW) process; welding the second weld portion adjacent a sidewall at a second heat input that is different than and at a reduced temperature than the first heat input to facilitate reducing dilution of a base material of the first and second rotor shaft sections into a welding material, wherein the second weld portion is welded using the SAW process, with an included weld preparation angle of between about 0° and about 30°; and changing an incident angle during welding to ensure that molten weld material flows along a first sidewall defined on the first rotor shaft section and along a second sidewall defined on the second rotor shaft section, to facilitate reducing dilution of the base material into a weld deposit.