Recent Trends in HIP Equipment and Associated Systems

Abstract

As the applications of HIP have expanded, demands for its new abilities have also increased. And, to meet those demands, various equipment has been developed in the past twenty years. Today, the maximum temperature reaches 3000°C, the pressure ranges from 300 Pa to 980 MPa, and the pressure medium gas can be nitrogen, argon, or argon with oxygen depending on the materials treated. Moreover, various HIP systems have been developed to improve productivity or to reduce process costs, such as pre-heating-systems, or rapid cooling HIP systems, the “Sinter+HIP” system. This paper describes these trends in HIP equipment and systems.