The ability to manufacture tailor-made powder metallurgically-based (PM) HIP products with irregular shapes and complex geometry offers several advantages over castings, forgings and fabricated materials, both in terms of design flexibility and material properties.
Four main advantages with HIP products
1. Increased design flexibility
Hot isostatic pressing allows for considerable design flexibility in shaping components, making it especially suitable for products such as flanges, valve bodies, manifolds, hubs and pump parts. Often involving irregular shapes and small runs of a type and size, each HIP product/component can be individually designed so that it is guaranteed to meet its operating conditions.
2. Reduction of costly operations
The ability to manufacture products with irregular shapes and complex geometry means less need for costly operations like machining and welding.
3. Improved process safety
The elimination of critical welds makes HIP products contribute to increased process safety.
4. Enhanced material properties
The fine microstructure and isostatic pressure with which the HIP products are processed result in isotropic mechanical properties, in other words, properties that are equal in all directions. The isotropic properties, with no segregations, can contribute to, for example, lighter constructions.
Sandvik's HIP products made from pure duplex, super-duplex or nickel alloy powder have excellent resistance to corrosion and hydrogen-induced stress cracking (HISC). Sandvik's HIP products' resistance to HISC is of vital importance in several offshore applications and is documented in DNV RP-F112.
The unique product properties of Sandvik's HIP products make them specially suitable for offshore applications.