Latest Developments in HIP and High-Pressure Heat Treatment for Additive Manufacturing

Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) has been used to remove porosity and internal defects in components for critical applications in many industries including aerospace and medical to predominantly enhance mechanical properties and fatigue resistance. Trends for the post processing of additively manufactured (AM) materials has moved to further improve thermal processing routes innovative uses of the heat and pressure developed during densification. Studies have demonstrated significant benefits for production processes where demands on cost and quality are significant and where internal defects and porosity are of concern.

With PBF technologies being a relatively slow and costly process, a holistic view of AM is required to improve adoption. HIP, often established as a requirement for critical applications, can enable the ability to print with increased build rates. The output is a microstructure with a lower density due to a higher amount of porosity, yet the porosity can be fully addressed with optimized HIP parameters providing an beneficial process route in terms of throughput and cost.

Recent developments in the use of in-process heat treatment directly after the densification of materials (High Pressure Heat Treatment) have shown further improvements in material properties such as strength and fatigue resistance, facilitating weight savings and optimal performance. Combined post processing using HIP including Solution Heat Treatment (SHT) and Aging leads to the opportunities to automate production and improve digitalised quality improvement methodologies.

In this presentation, solutions for various alloys as well as recent results from trials and studies will be discussed. These case studies will capture utilizing HIP to enable faster PBF printing and High Pressure Heat Treatment to enhance producibility, productivity, and performance.