Cold - hot isostatic pressing of superalloy composites

Abstract

High volume production of superalloy metal matrix composites (SMMCs) processed at high temperature (above 1000 °C) under clean environmental single-stage conditions is cost inhibitive. Special designed equipment on handling, processing and finishing are usually needed. As the aircraft industry moves towards lower cost without sacrificing on its reliability and quality, a viable production process is urgently needed. In this project, various processing technologies were employed sequentially to produce SMMCs via the Powder Metallurgy (PM) route. The multistage process consists of i) cold isostatic compaction of the SMMC powders to a green preform, ii) supersolidus vacuum sintering of preforms to more than 90% density and iii) densification by hot isostatic pressing.