Hot isostatic pressing development at Battelle Memorial Institute

Background context for the rejuvenation method. 20,000 psi argon, 2,000°F, eight to ten hours; closes internal pores without deforming part shape. Discussed as a process before the Grafton vessel failure case anchors §5.

There is something called hot isostatic pressing, developed in the 50s and used more and more extensively since. You can take a casting — for example, Harley-Davidson aluminum cylinder heads for their engines, which are a critical component. Why are they critical? You're sitting right on top of it; it blows up, okay. You take a pressure vessel — this could be a pretty good-sized pressure vessel — it has end caps that are just screwed in, so it's a big cylinder.

First HIP unit developed at Battelle post-WWII; second unit installed circa 1950 in the MIT room that later housed Tom's 1985 HIP, in Nick Grant's powder metallurgy lab.

Developed at Battelle Memorial Institute right after World War II. The first unit was at Battelle. The second one in the world — well, the room where you have your refrigerator now — was the second hot isostatic press, around 1950. Professor Grant, who did all this powder metallurgy work, had one. In about 1985 I got a brand new hot isostatic press, and I put it in that room. I saw Professor Grant in the hallway and said, "Hey Nick, we got a HIP unit." He said, "Oh, you did?" I took him in and showed it. He said, "That's the same spot where the second one in the world was. I had it there in the early 1950s." And I had it there in 1985.

Used to demonstrate the practical importance of knowing gas-vs-condensed-phase density ratios. The world's first HIP press at Battelle, the second at MIT (4-131). 2,000°C, 2,000 atmospheres argon, squeezing pores out of powder-metallurgy turbine discs.

Hot isostatic pressing. Anybody heard of it? If you're going to build a turbine disc, you might make it out of powder metallurgy. Good reason — uniformity of composition of the powders. But you end up with pores all through the structure, and those pores, just like a perforated piece of paper, weaken the material. You'd like to get rid of them. Right after World War II, at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, they built the world's first hot isostatic press. The second one was located in 4-131, right next to where you eat breakfast. They build a furnace that will go to 2,000 degrees and 2,000 atmospheres — about 20 or 30,000 PSI.