In case you're interested, Althea, I've confirmed that it's definitely orejetas. Orejeras wouldn't fit in this context, though it does seem to be an architectural term. Clearly the Supreme Court judgment has a number of typos because the lower court judgment (Provincial Court of Appeals of Oviedo) contains this same phrase but with all the words spelt correctly:
incluso antes de producirse la fisuración en el proceso de soldeo del arco móvil a las orejetas de conexión de las costillas móviles
http://www.poderjudicial.es/search/AN/openCDocument/4abfa69f...This also confirms patinba's answer that it should be "soldeo".