Bodycote has taken delivery of a high-capacity hot isostatic press (HIP) at its Camas, Wash., facility. The unit was supplied by Avure Technologies and is identical in size to a HIP unit installed at Camas in 1998. Both rank as the largest such presses ever built. The work zones of these presses measure 66 inches in diameter and 100 inches in length, with operating pressures up to 15,000 psi and temperatures of 2300°F to densify and eliminate internal porosity in a wide variety of industrial components.
The Camas facility is part of Bodycote’s Thermal Processing Group and primarily processes commercial and aerospace castings made from titanium, nickel, cobalt, iron-based superalloy, aluminum and steel. The use of ultra-large HIPs enables Bodycote’s customers to outsource the densification and strengthening of their parts in shared space at low cost per pound with no minimum lot size.