ISOSTATIC PRESSING TECHNOLOGY

摘要

Isostatic pressing is a general term used for consolidating or densifying materials and is distinguished between the application of pressure at ambient or elevated temperature. At ambient temperature to 25℃, the process is referred to as Cold Isostatic Pressing (CIP). At elevated temperature to 3000℃, it is termed Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP). Some other basic differences are that CIPing is mainly a powder compaction process using water as the pressing media and cycles can be completed in minutes. HIPing, on the other hand, is a multi-purpose process for compacting containerized powders or densification of either pre-compacts or castings without containers. Typically Argon gas is the pressing media and cycle times are in a range of 2-24 hours. In certain applications, CIPing compliments HTPing by cold compacting a powder, then sintering and finally HIPing to 100% theoretical density. Both the CIP & HIP processes are well established in the industry and the aim with this presentation is to describe isostatic processing for compacting powder parts using select equipment for best capital return on the investment.