Application of hot isostatic forming

January 14,2023

1. Related applications

(1) Densification of castings

Hot isostatic pressing is a more mature and perfect field in the densification of castings in the earlier application of research and development. We can effectively remove defects and porosity from the casting using a hot isostatic pressing treatment without damaging the casting itself.

(2) Preparation of powder metallurgy material products for IP

The HIP process provides the means to produce the desired high density, fine-grain, high-performance, high-density powder metallurgical materials, and parts. More and more powder metallurgical products are being formed and densified using the HIP process in order to obtain uniform and fine structure material losses, and reduce subsequent machining processes.

(3) IP near-end forming technology for powder metallurgy products

The HIP process is capable of producing near-final-shaped parts that require little or no machining. A hot-isostatically pressed near-final part can be made into a final size or close to the final product size, so less material is used. According to statistics, the material utilization rate of products made by the HIP near final forming process can generally reach 80%–90%, and its price is more than 20% lower than that of products made by conventional processes, while significantly reducing the time and cost of machining.

(4) High-performance porcelain IP preparation technology

The HIP process provides a means to produce high-performance, high-uniformity, high-density ceramics or ceramic-metal composites. Because the powder is fed directly into the envelope during processing, the raw material is free of contamination throughout the process, resulting in a pure, homogeneous material with a uniform fine grain size and a density close to 100%.

(5) IP cladding and IP composite diffusion bonding

Hot isostatic cladding and hot isostatic composite diffusion bonding are other important applications of hot isostatic pressing. Hot isostatic cladding technology is a new technology that uses hot isostatic pressing technology to prepare cladding with special physical or chemical properties on a material to improve its overall performance. Hot isostatic pressure composite diffusion connection is a new technology that will combine two or more different materials under the action of high temperature and pressure for diffusion connection.

(6) Other new fields of application

In addition to the main application areas mentioned above, HIP technology also includes the following applications: (1) In porous materials, the use of nitrogen as a medium to generate nitrides at high temperatures makes HIP work for porous materials; (2) HIP technology combined with nitriding and other surface treatment to expand the function of HIP; (3) suspension melting process for the preparation of high-purity materials can use HIP technology; and (4) HIP technology is used in the food industry to apply high pressure to food to achieve the goal of sterilization of food without decontamination.

2. metal powder

The relevant metals used for hot isostatic forming are mainly titanium alloys, high-temperature alloys, powdered steel, cemented carbide, metal ceramics, and so on.

Some of the metal powders are shown as follows:

(1)