ZIM project ZF4042204US6

Development of an innovative hot isostatic press for the combined compaction and heat treatment of semi-finished products and components

Pow­der metall­ur­gi­cal­ly pro­du­ced com­pon­ents, which must be hot iso­sta­ti­cal­ly pres­sed as well as heat trea­ted, usual­ly pass through the­se two pro­ces­ses in two sepa­ra­te plants. Up to now, con­ven­tio­nal­ly hot iso­sta­ti­cal­ly pres­sed and heat-trea­ted com­pon­ents had to be coo­led to room tem­pe­ra­tu­re in the HIP sys­tem after hot iso­sta­tic pres­sing, at tem­pe­ra­tures of more than 1200 °C in some cases. They are then trans­por­ted in the air to the heat tre­at­ment plant and posi­tio­ned on a rack sui­ta­ble for heat tre­at­ment. Coo­ling can take seve­ral hours and the heat stored in the plant and in the com­pon­ents is lost. In the addi­tio­nal heat tre­at­ment plant requi­red, both the com­pon­ents and the plant must be rehea­ted in order to reach the tem­pe­ra­tu­re requi­red for the heat treatment.

The aim of this rese­arch pro­ject is the deve­lo­p­ment of a novel hot iso­sta­tic press (HIP) with inte­gra­ted, inno­va­ti­ve rapid coo­ling for heat tre­at­ment. In addi­ti­on to pore-free com­pac­tion, a defi­ned coo­ling of the com­po­nent can be car­ri­ed out in this new type of plant in order to spe­ci­fi­cal­ly adjust the mate­ri­al struc­tu­re and thus the mate­ri­al pro­per­ties (hard­ness, strength). The result is the com­bi­na­ti­on of the two ener­gy- and time-inten­si­ve pro­cess steps of com­pac­ting to full den­si­ty and heat tre­at­ment (defi­ned hea­ting of the com­po­nent to tar­get tem­pe­ra­tu­re and sub­se­quent rapid coo­ling) in an indus­tri­al plant. The core of the rese­arch pro­ject is the design, manu­fac­tu­re and func­tion­al test­ing of a sui­ta­ble rapid coo­ling sys­tem, which makes it pos­si­ble to fle­xi­bly adapt the coo­ling rate requi­red for heat tre­at­ment to the com­po­nent geo­me­try, the loa­ding situa­ti­on of the reci­pi­ent and the mate­ri­al pro­per­ties requi­red by the user. Addi­tio­nal invest­ments in a heat tre­at­ment plant are not necessary.

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The rese­arch pro­ject with the fun­ding code ZF4042204US6 is fun­ded by the Fede­ral Minis­try of Eco­no­mics and Ener­gy on the basis of a reso­lu­ti­on of the Ger­man Bundestag.