Industry News Pressure
Pressure Technology Inc. Announces New Southeast HIP Facility Technology Inc. was graduate of
founded in 1977 by Arnold Bowles, a mechanical engineering
Imperial College London, having worked in the pressure vessel design industry for many years. At this time commercial Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) was in its infancy primarily used by Tungsten Carbide manufacturers to remove micro porosity remaining after sintering. HIP was subsequently found to have a highly beneficial effect on fracture toughness and fatigue resistance, and the industry grew.
The first Pressure Technology HIP
facility was located in the suburbs of Philadelphia PA with a single, small HIP unit and gradually expanded HIP capacity as customer demand grew.
During the late 1970’s to mid-
Quality, Reliability & Responsiveness
Aerospace // Automotive // Biomedical Castings // Electronics // Oil & Gas Power Generation // Powder Metallurgy Diffusion Bonding // Additive Mfg.
• Eleven Units to 30” in Diameter & 108” Long • Pressures to 30,000 psi (207 MPa) • Temperature to 2550° F (1400° C)
1980’s materials researchers at aero engine manufacturers in collaboration with aerospace investment casting companies continued to explore the benefits of removing porosity from high quality castings and began to specify HIP as a post-cast treatment to turbine blades and other highly stressed components. The result of adding HIP improved key mechanical properties and narrowed the variability of properties thus improving reliability.
Pressure Technology as a leader in the HIP industry began to process increasing volumes of precision investment castings which in turn led to the design and manufacturing of its first 30” HIP unit.
The success of the HIP process for aero precision castings expanded to other applications and pushed the capacity of the Pennsylvania facility. In response, Pressure
Technology Heat Treating
www.pressuretechnology.com 40 ❘ June 2022 ®
opened a new plant near Cleveland OH in 2003. The new plant met the increasing demand from mid- west investment foundries and over the course of 19 years increased its capacity to seven HIP units mainly of the 30” diameter design. In the same
time period the PA site also added a further 30” diameter unit for a total of eleven HIP units at the two plants.
With the continuing expansion of
the investment casting industry, and new technologies such as additive manufacturing that requires HIP, it was soon realized that Pressure Technology’s quest to maintain premier quality HIP services and extremely fast turnaround required a more local facility for customers located in the southeast.
It is with great pleasure and excitement that Pressure Technology announces the opening of a brand-new facility. The new facility is in northern Florida close to the city of Alachua, just north of Gainesville with easy access to I-75.
Pressure Technology of Florida will
initially have two 30” HIP units of the exact same design used in PA and OH. The same stringent quality controls will be in place and the same quality approvals including AS9100D, Nadcap and ITAR registrations.
Pressure Technology looks forward to serving the Investment Casting Industry for another 40 years.
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