HIP Equipment Development for Aluminum Products

In recent years, because of the growing demand for lighter vehicles in the automotive industry, the proportion of aluminum castings has steadily increased. In response to this demand, Kobe Steel has developed new HIP equipment for aluminum products. In the new equipment, the total cycle time was reduced to about 4 hours (from 7 hours). In order to reduce HIP processing costs, the pressure and processing time had to be reduced and shortened, respectively. Experimental results showed that aluminum casting tensile strength and fatigue strength can be improved by HIPing with the new equipment regardless of the pressure when the pressure is higher than 25MPa.