High Pressure Heat Treatment - The Enabler for Space Technology

The Space Industry is seeing a renewed focus currently, with a significant number of major government and private initiatives involved launching of communication satellites into orbit and interplanetary exploration probes into the Solar system and beyond. Manned missions to the moon are back on the table, and there are discussions on moon bases as a steppingstone to Mars.

Light weight, heat resistant and fatigue resistant structures are needed to ensure secure and economically attractive missions, and here, Hot Isostatic Pressing plays a key role.

Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) has been used successfully by suppliers to the aerospace industry for many years. HIP is used to eliminate pores and remove defects to dramatically improve material properties such as fatigue resistance, ductility and impact toughness.

With typical pressures from 400 to 2,070 bar (5,800 to 30,000 psi) and temperatures up to 2,000°C (3,632°F), HIP can achieve 100% of maximum theoretical density and improve the mechanical properties of critical, high-performance materials. Regardless of production method, whether it be casting, additive manufacturing or metal injection moulding HIP provides the in-service performance needed.

Additive Manufacturing and HIP with Quintus Technologies

Take the opportunity and listen in to our webinar on HIP for the Space Industry.

Mission critical components are processed using HIP to ensure integrity with significantly increased fatigue life, in the range of 10 to 100 times. Increased ductility and fracture toughness are also a result of defect healing. This technique has been utilised for many years on cast material and is becoming increasingly important for newer production methods such as additive manufacturing, or 3D printing.