Paulo Invests in Hot Isostatic Pressing

Paulo (St. Louis, MO), a North American leader in the heat treating industry, will add hot isostatic pressing to their thermal processing services with the acquisition of a QIH 122 M URC® Hot Isostatic Press (HIP) from Quintus Technologies AB (Västerås, Sweden) that is equipped with proprietary uniform rapid cooling (URC), a feature that improves material properties in additive manufacturing and investment casting. “We see the market for HIP expanding, with a large part attributed to additive manufacturing,” said Scott Herzing, the vice president of engineering at Paulo. “We have the leading material knowledge and process expertise to help our customers in this area. The ability to combine HIP and heat treatment will allow us to offer one-stop-shop thermal processing systems, with faster turnaround times.”

The HIP will be installed in Paulo’s recently expanded Cleveland Division in Willoughby, OH, which provides specialized brazing and precise vacuum heat treatment. The plant’s AS9100 quality management system and Nadcap accreditation make it especially well-suited to serve the needs of the aerospace and power generation industries. Configured as a Quintus Modularized Solution, a space- and energy-saving profile that simplifies building and civil work and reduces infrastructure investment, this press features a work zone of 26 in (660 mm) diameter and 68.9 in (1,750 mm) height. It operates at a maximum temperature of 2,552 deg F (1,400 deg C) and maximum pressure of 30,000 psi (2,070 bar). Its unique URC feature streamlines the steps involved in material densification by combining heat treatment and cooling in a single process, known as High Pressure Heat Treatment (HPHT), which enables all processed components to cool uniformly, minimizing thermal distortion and non-uniform grain growth, improving their performance. Heating and cooling the workload only once, in a single cycle, enhances efficiency and dramatically reduces per-unit processing costs.

In addition to turnkey delivery, the Paulo order includes an extra furnace base, extended warranty, and a five-year Quintus® Care agreement that is a rigorous preventative maintenance program to assure safe, trouble-free press operation and optimized functionality at a fixed annual cost. It also provides users with significant technical expertise to achieve success in their specific applications. Paulo and Quintus Technologies have also entered into a marketing agreement that reflects the commitment of both companies to work closely together to spread the use of the HPHT process.

www.paulo.com