Thermal Technology built, installed and commissioned a 500,000-pound-force hot press for a California company to produce large powder-metallurgy semiconductor materials. 

Thermal Technology built, installed and commissioned a 500,000-pound-force hot press for a California company to produce large powder-metallurgy semiconductor materials. The hot press offers a large usable workspace with a four-side, heated graphite hot zone rated to 1800°C (3272°F). It operates in an inert gas, vacuum or partial-pressure environment. The Model HP500-242424G provides a 24-inch-cube work area with a convenient front or rear loading configuration, permitting direct and unrestricted access to the work area.           

This high-force system offers precision force control and displacement measurement with accuracy of better than 0.5% of reading. Thermal Technology’s hot-press systems are designed for the simultaneous application of high temperature and high pressures.  Primary applications include densification of powdered materials, diffusion bonding of solid components and processing of fibrous composites. Temperature and force programming are simplified by the use of a Eurotherm 2704 controller.