Process for producing a rotor

US7546685B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• General Electric Company · US

Inventors

• Swami Ganesh · Clifton Park, US
• Robin Carl Schwant · Pattersonville, US
• Ling Yang · Ebao, CN
• John Zhiqiang Wang · Greenville, US
• Francis Alexander Reed · Scotia, US
• Robert V. Falsetti · Schenectady, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 1, 2005
• Grant date: Jun 16, 2009
• Expiry date: Jan 17, 2027

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10T29/49337
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A process for producing a rotor, the rotor formed thereby, as well as turbines in which such a rotor is installed. The rotor is formed by casting an ingot to have first and second regions formed of different alloys that intermix during casting to define a transition zone therebetween. The ingot is forged to yield a rotor forging that contains axially-aligned first and second alloy regions and a transition zone therebetween. The effects of the transition zone can be mitigated by modeling the transition zone and then off-center machining the forging so that the axis of rotation of the machined monolithic rotor is more centrally located with respect to the transition zone.