Hot isostatic pressing in additive manufacturing : a costly necessity or a possibility to add value?

Citation
Developing the powder metallurgy future : Euro PM 2021 Virtual Congress & Exhibiton : proceedings : 18-22 October 2021, online / EPMA, European Powder Metallurgy Association. - 2021.
Contribution to Conference
2021 European Powder Metallurgy Congress and Exhibition, Euro PM2021  
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85134208625
ISBN
978-1-899072-54-5
Additive Manufacturing (AM) has lately become a true manufacturing option for the serial production of parts, e.g. in the medical and aerospace industries. Especially in these highly regulated markets, Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) is often used as a mandatory post-processing measure to ensure fully dense parts. Given the still comparatively low productivity of AM, the necessity of HIP is frequently considered as an additional burden in terms of cost and time. Instead, this contribution assesses options to add value to parts from different AM processes using HIP beyond merely assuring density. Besides mechanical property-based impacts, it may increase reproducibility thus reducing scrap. Using the capabilities of HIP, the AM process itself may also be adapted for higher productivity. As an example, a combined approach of Laser Powder Bed Fusion and subsequent HIP is presented for Ti-6Al-4V and IN718, leading to significant savings in build time.
DDC Class
530: Physics