Hot Isostatic Pressing

Hot Isostatic Pressing

Topics Covered
Background The HIPing Process Advantages of HIPed Materials HIP and Maching What Type of Things can be Produced by HIPing? What HIPing can be used for Cladding Areas where HIPing is Utilised HIP in the Gas Turbine Industry HIP vs Conventional Foundry Technology Summary

Background
In 1976, Howmet Corporation became the first company to offer hot isostatic pressing (HIP) services to the aerospace industry. The HIP process, which subjects a component to elevated temperatures and pressures to eliminate internal microshrinkage, helped engineers respond to the aerospace industrys increasingly stringent regulations. HIP enabled engineers to design components so they could meet specifications for use in critical, highly stressed applications.

The HIPing Process

The HIP process provides a method for producing components from diverse powdered materials, including metals and ceramics. During the manufacturing process, a powder mixture of several elements is placed in a container, typically a steel can. The container is subjected to elevated temperature and a very high vacuum to remove air and moisture from the powder. The container is then sealed and HIPed The application of high inert gas pressures and elevated temperatures results in the removal of internal voids and creates a strong metallurgical bond throughout the material. The result is a clean homogeneous material with a uniformly fine grain size and a near 100% density.

Advantages of HIPed Materials

The reduced porosity of HIPed materials enables improved mechanical properties and increased workability. The HIP process eliminates internal voids and creates clean, firm bonds and fine, uniform microstructures. These characteristics are not possible with welding or casting. The virtual elimination of internal voids enhances part performance and improves fatigue strength. The process also results in significantly improved non-destructive examination ratings.

HIP and Maching

One of the primary advantages of the HIP process is its ability to create near-net shapes that require little machining. Conventional manufacturing methods use only 10-30% of the material purchased in the final product the rest is removed during machining. A HIPed near-net shape part typically uses 80-90% of the purchased material. As a result, machining time and costs are significantly reduced. The strong combination of improved raw material use and greater machining efficiency that results from the HIP process has driven the growth of HIPed powder metal parts manufactured from nickel-based and titanium alloys. In fact, HIP has become the standard bill of material on virtually all powder metal components produced by Howmets HIP operation.

What Type of Things can be Produced by HIPing?

The HIP process enables engineers to produce materials of all shapes and sizes, including cylindrical billets, flat
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Hot Isostatic Pressing

rectangular bar billets, solid shapes with complex external geometry, and complex shapes with internal cavities. Because powder metals do not have the directional property characteristics of forgings, the HIP process can produce materials from metallic compositions that are difficult or impossible to forge or cast. Howmets expertise in HIP powder compaction is displayed in the manufacture of abrasive tips, figure 1. Abrasive tips are uniquely layered compacts of ceramic and metallic powders which are used for turbine blade wear protection.

Figure 1. Ceramic and metal sides of finish machined abrasive tips

What HIPing can be used for

The HIP process is now not only used for densifying castings, but in many other applications such as diffusion bonding of dissimilar materials, component repair and powder metal consolidation. In the powder metal market, Howmet applies HIP technology in four separate areas: Consolidation of powder metals (PM) Creation of PM shapes Production of near-net shapes Cladding.

Cladding
Another fundamental application of the HIP process is cladding. Cladding is the selective bonding of hardfacing materials onto various substrate surfaces. A less expensive material is coated with a thin layer of powdered metal, creating a buffer on its wear surface. This reduces costs by placing expensive, wear resistant materials only where they are needed. As a result, wear resistant properties are improved without incurring unnecessary cost penalties. An additional benefit of cladding is that it can create bonds between otherwise incompatible materials such as metal, intermetallic, and ceramic powders. Most notably, cladding is used in the production of diesel engine valve lifters, figure 2. Here, the hardfacing material (tungsten carbide) is bonded to a lower cost material such as an alloy steel. Howmet has also used this capability in a number of other industries, such as the offshore and plastic extrusion equipment industries, where cladding is used to fortify various components including valve bodies, thick wall casings, and compound tubes, figure 2.

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Hot Isostatic Pressing

Figure 2. Left, diesel engine valve lifters with HIP clad carbide hardfacing and right, cross section of 4140 steel extrusion barrel with HIP clad inside diameter of nickel alloy hardfacing.

Areas where HIPing is Utilised

Today, HIP has expanded well beyond aerospace products and is finding new applications in a range of industries, including automotive (turbocharger wheels and diesel engine valve lifters), medical (prosthetic devices), petroleum (valve bodies) and chemical processing. HIP offers engineers in these industries greater design freedom than was previously possible with conventional processes such as forging and casting. Parts which cannot be made by the more conventional processes are now possible using HIP, figure 3. An example of this is the dual alloy wheel. In this the hub, which is made of a HIP consolidated powder metal, is bonded to a cast outer ring through the use of the HIP process. The resulting part has excellent tensile properties in the hub and high stress rupture properties on the outer ring.

Figure 3. A Selection of parts made by HIPing

HIP in the Gas Turbine Industry

A rapid rise in the use of the HIP process followed the intensification of standards within the gas turbine industry. These standards required the elimination of shrinkage porosity in investment cast components, such as increasingly complex airfoils.

HIP vs Conventional Foundry Technology

Conventional foundry technology was not up to the task. By developing HIP, Howmet met mechanical property requirements and eliminated shrinkage porosity defects. HIP provided the means to produce the desired high density, fine grain material.

Summary
Since its inception in 1955, the use of the HIP has grown steadily in the powder metal and casting densification fields. During the last 25 years, HIP has become a proven process in the production of aerospace and industrial gas turbine parts, and the future looks bright. New markets have developed for rocket engines, satellites and aerospace airframe castings. HIP continues to be used more frequently in the production of powder metal parts
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and shapes. Cladding and near net shape technology are on the rise with significant growth expected in the production of sputtering targets. As with any technology, awareness by industry is the key to growth. With this in mind, a HIP council was recently formed consisting of equipment manufacturers and HIP suppliers. The inaugural meeting of the Hot Isostatic Pressing Council of the Advanced Particulate Materials Association took place on 30 August, 1999 at Bodycote IMT, Andover, Massachusettes. This council will now address the areas of safety, marketing and technology, to further enhance the capabilities of the HIP process. Primary author: Steven Mussman Source: Materials World Vol. 7 no. 11, pp. 677-78, November 1999. For more information on Materials World please visit The Institute of Materials.
Date Added: Sep 28, 2001

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Bodycote Heat Treatment

Bodycote Heat Treatment

Related Profiles Bodycote Japan K.K. Ceramic Coatings | Bodycote Controlled Atmosphere Processing | Bodycote Electron Beam Welding | Bodycote Hardening & Tempering | Bodycote Hot Isostatic Pressing | Bodycote HVOF Thermal Spray Coatings | Bodycote Low Pressure Carburising | Bodycote Near Net Shape Components | Bodycote Plasma Spray Coatings | Bodycote Sheradizing | Bodycote Thermal Spray Coatings | Bodycote Vacuum Brazing | Bodycote Vacuum Heat Treatment | Bodycote

Springwood Court, Springwood Close Tytherington Business Park Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 2XF United Kingdom PH: 44 (1625) 505300 Fax: 44 (1625) 505320 Email: simon.blantern@bodycote.com Visit Bodycote Heat Treatment Website

Company Background
Bodycote Heat Treatment provides world class services and has an international reputation for total reliability and unrivalled expertise in all significant heat treatment processes. Vital capacity and unmatched investment in all industrially important treatments and leading-edge fully computerised heat treatment centres are complemented by sophisticated metal joining facilities. Bodycote Heat Treatment is a vital link in the manufacturing process for the aerospace, power generation, automotive, railway and general engineering industries. Total quality commitment, international quality accreditations and numerous customer approvals, means that 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, Bodycote guarantees world-class standards. Bodycote Heat Treatment, combined with the Group's other services, can offer manufacturers comprehensive services with guaranteed capacity from strategically located international facilities. There are several reasons why you should choose Bodycote Heat Treatment for all your heat treatment requirements. These include:
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Bodycote Heat Treatment

Furnaces, Controls and Management Systems are validated by the main engineering OEM's. Bodycote Heat Treatment Centres hold all of the industrially important quality accreditations. Process and production controls are linked with transport services, to deliver optimum logistics solutions for supply chain customers. Bodycote's trained and experienced personnel are eager to ensure that all customers components are treated with care throughout. We never forget that the customer has invested time, money and resources in all the components we heat treat. For the convenience of their clients, Bodycote Heat Treatment has facilities in:

Austria Belgium Canada Czech Republic Denmark Finland France Germany

Hungary Italy Liechtenstein Netherlands Sweden Switzerland UK USA

Territories Serviced
Global

Services
Bodycote Heat Treatment have facilities to be able to heat treat the complete range of metals including:

Aluminium alloys Cast irons Cold work tool steels Engineered steels High speed steels Hot work tool steels Low alloy steels Magnetic alloys Nickel alloys Nimonic alloys Non-ferrous alloys Plastic mould steels PN parts Sintered metals Stainless steels Titanium alloys Tool steels

Bodycote Heat Treatment offer a full range of heat treatment services such as:

Ageing and Solution Ageing Aluminium treatments Annealing Austempering Marquenching Boronizing Brazing Carbonitriding Carburizing Controlled atrmosphere treatments Cryogenic Treatment Induction Hardening Kolsterising Low Pressure Carburising Malcomizing Nitriding Normalizing Plasma Nitriding Press quenching Shot Peening Shot Blasting
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Electron Beam Welding Ferritic Nitro Carburizing Fluidised bed treatments Gas Nitriding Hardening and Tempering Homogenising

Straightening Stress Relieving Vacuum Brazing Vacuum Degassing Vacuum Heat Treatment

Submission Date
December 13, 2004

Sales Contact
Mr Simon Blantern Sales & New Business Development Director

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