Avure Technologies
PM-DK temadag, 2012-11-01
Dr. Anders Eklund
Business Unit Director –
Advanced Material Densification
1
Avure Confidential, 2012
Outline of Presentation
• History of Company
• Safety
• Cold Isostatic Pressing (CIP) system and it’s
Applications
• Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) system and it’s
Applications
• Powder and New developments
Avure Confidential, 2012
Avure’s Roots: Synthetic Diamonds
QUINTUS project - 1953 First successful diamond synthesis by ASEA, Sweden
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Avure Confidential, 2012
Solid Foundation and
History of Excellence
Company formation
under ASEA (later
ABB) ownership
19401950
1953
Sale of Company to
Flow International
Introduction of
isostatic presses
1964
1965
Sale of Company to
The Gores Group
Introduction of food
processing presses
1970
1980
1991
1995
1999
2005
2009
Purchase of Company with
Milestone Partners
Company produces
the world’s first
synthetic diamond
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Introduction of
flexform presses
First delivery to the
automotive industry
Introduction of
isostatic laminators
Avure Confidential, 2012
Supply of the worlds
largest HIP
Avure Technologies Overview
>50 Years of High Pressure Innovation
High Pressure
Sheet Metal
Advance Material
Pasteurization
Forming
Densification
$100m+ Sales • 1,800+ Installs
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190 Employees
Avure Confidential 2012
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Global Footprint
Avure Throughout the World
- Headquarters in Västerås, Sweden (Industrial Division)
- Manufacturing facilities:
- Västerås, Sweden
- Columbus, OH, USA
- Kent. WA, USA
Avure offices
Sales & Service partners
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Avure Confidential 2011
Avure Sweden
Office
Workshop
7
Avure Confidential, 2012
Pressure vessel technology
Most Important Considerations for Isostatic Press Installations
• Safety
• Safety
• Safety
• Long life
• Lowest possible life cycle cost
Avure Confidential, 2012
Safety and redundancy in design can never be compromized
For example, a large Cold Isostatic Press contains a hugh amount of stored energy
when under pressure.
Avure Confidential, 2012
System Safety
Andover accident 1998-07-26
Accident with a large monoblock vessel in USA (Competitor
design)
 Large monoblock design with a threaded closure
 No frame was used for the pressure vessel
 The vessel failed most likely due to thermal stresses that
were not taken into account
 The vessel failed most likely due to crack propagation from
the outside of the cylinder
The customer replaced the vessel with a
QUINTUS® Press
Avure Technologies
Avure Confidential, 2012
System Safety
Mono-block design:
Monoblock
cylinder
 The mono-block design has not
got the advantages that the wire
wound technique provides
No
pressure
Pressure
 A monoblock vessel will never
experience compressive stress
on both inner and outer surface
 Leak before break will not be
established
 Fatal failure will occur in case
of a through the wall crack
 The design requires frequent,
extensive and expensive safety
related maintenance!
Avure Technologies
Avure Confidential, 2012
Failure mode:
Catastrophic
System Safety
The mono-block vessel – A non-redundant pressure vessel
concept with its roots in WW 1 battle ship gun barrel design
The heat treatment
of the forging is
difficult to control
Thick vessel wall
Large tensile
stresses
Built in stress
concentrations
High risk for
crack initiation
Avure Technologies
Any failure would
be catastrophic!
Avure Confidential, 2012
System Safety
QUINTUS® design:
 The wire wound technique has
got a lot of advantages compared
to the mono-block design
No
pressure
Pre-stressed
thin-walled
cylinder
Pressure
 The pre-stressed vessel will
always experience compressive
stress on the inner surface
 A leak before break design secures
that no fatal failure will occur in
case of a through the wall crack
 Since the design is both safe and
redundant, the need for frequent safety
related maintenance is eliminated!
Avure Technologies
Failure mode:
”Leak rather than
break”
Avure Confidential, 2012
Avure Cold Isostatic Pressing Systems
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Avure Confidential, 2012
Typical CIP Applications
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Tungsten Carbide Products
Refractory Ceramic Products
Refractory Metal Products
Carbon/Graphite pre-forms
Heavy Metals
Ceramic pre-forms
Fine Ceramics
Metal Filters
Metal Powders
Beryllium pre-forms
Rare Earth Metals
PTFE (Teflon)
etc.
Avure Confidential, 2012
Cold Isostatic Pressing Principle
Compaction of powdered materials with the aid of isostatic pressure
resulting in green bodies with isotropic properties
Avure Confidential, 2012
Wet Bag Mold Design For Casting Nozzle
Rubber Lid
Rubber Strap
Support Tube
Support Tube
Rubber Mold
Alumina/Graphite
Powder
Base Plate
Avure Confidential, 2012
Wet bag mold design for graphite crucibles
Avure Confidential, 2012
Present Industry Trends
• Larger CIP (Iso-press) systems – driven by market needs
• Higher productivity – Pressurization capacities has
increased by an order of magnitude
• More automation for faster turn-around between cycles
• Energy savings through more energy efficient
pressurization systems
• Noise control
Avure Confidential, 2012
”State of the art” medium size and large CIP presses should have
the following charachteristics:
• ”Leak-rather than-break” as
defined by the ASME code Section VIII, Div. 3
• Long cyclic life (> 200 000 cycles)
• Lowest possible weight
• High efficiency high pressure pumping solutions
• Accurate decompression control at all
pressures
• Advanced and operator friendly
HMI solutions!
Avure Confidential, 2012
Equipment Scope of CIP Press
Power Supply
and
MCC
Oil Hydraulic or Direct
Drive System with
High Pressure Pump(s)
Process Fluid (water)
Handling System
PLC
Touch Screen HMI
Data Acquisition Unit
Loading/Unloading
Automation Systems
Avure Confidential, 2012
Wire-wound Pre-stressed QUINTUS R
Pressure Vessel and Frame
Wire-wound
yoke frame
Closure manipulator
Upper closure
with air-bleed valve
Wire-wound
pressure vessel
Lower closure with pre-fill valve
Vessel support
structure
Frame traction
carriage
Base frame
Avure Confidential, 2012
Typical Large CIP lay-out
Operator’s panel
A
G
B
Power supply, MCC,
PLC and HMI
F
Process fluid system
E
Pressure intensifier(s)
C
D
Oil hydraulic drive system
Avure Confidential, 2012
Large 2500 bar Cold Isostatic Press Installation
Avure CIP system
ID:
IH:
Pressure:
Weight:
1600 mm
2600 mm
2500 bar
250 tonnes
Avure Confidential, 2012
Large Avure CIP system
ID:
2500 mm
IH:
3000 mm
Pressure:
2000 bar
Weight:
650 tons
Avure Confidential, 2012
High Pressure Pumping and Water Handling Systems
Vent Valve
Water Handling
System
Fine Decompression
Ramping Device
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Pre-fill
Valve
High Pressure Let-Down
Valves
Pressure Intensifier or
High Pressure Pump
Pre-fill Pumps
Avure Confidential, 2012
CIP Cycle Programmable Decompression Rates
Very Accurate Feed-back Control Decompression 200-15 (Optional)
and 15-0 bar
1-20 min in one or more segments
Avure Confidential, 2012
High Pressure Pumping and Water Handling Systems
 Avure pressure intensifier-
Single or double stroke
 Drive hydraulics and components
of standard design and make
 Direct drive plunger pumps also
available
 Outstanding reliability and service
friendliness of high pressure
components
 Skid mounted unit for ease of
installation
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Avure Confidential, 2012
Power Supply and Cycle Control System
• Cabinets are IP 54
• PLC and HMI are Siemens S7 or Rockwell
Automation
Cubicle for Power
Distribution
and Motor Starters
• Standard operating cycles
stored in PLC
• Rugged application program for
trouble free operation
• Data transfer to higher level
computer over TCP/IP possible
• Distributed I/O:s, Proven field bus solutions for
safe communication with PLC
• Modem for remote diagnostics
Avure Confidential, 2012
Control System
Cabinet with PLC,
HMI and Data Recorder
Automated loading/unloading
Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP Systems from Avure
Technologies
Dr. Anders Eklund
Business Unit DirectorAdvanced Material Densification
HIP Applications
Typical HIP Applications
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P/M Tool Steel
Aerospace castings (SA and Ti)
Aluminium castings (Densal with Bodycote)
Body implant castings (Ti and Co-Cr-Mo)
Body implant ceramics (Alumina and Zirkonia)
Advanced engineering ceramics
Armour ceramics
Composite P/M materials
Near net shape (NNS) alloy steel products
Super alloy billets and NNS P/M products
Diffusion bonding of dissimilar materials
Sputtering targets
Metal matrix diamond tools
Metal matrix composites
HIP brazing
Carbon/Carbon HIP impregnation
etc.
Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP Applications
Aerospace and
Industrial Gas Turbine
Castings (Titanium and
Super-alloys)
Today around 60% of the worldwide HIP capacity in number of
HIP systems is used for this
application
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P/M Tool Steels, NNS Steel
Products and Various
Composite Products
Today around 5% of world-wide
HIP installations but probably >
50% of the HIPped through-put
tonnage. This application has a
hugh growth potential
Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP Applications
• HIPped MPIF’s P/M part
of the year 2007
– A good example of the
possibilities of near
net shape HIPping of
stainless steel (316 LN)
Curved Surface
Grand Prize
Cryomagnetic End Cover
– Part weight is approx. 114 kg
and finished part weight 70 kg
– Material properties are
equal or better as
compared with wrought
316 LN
Courtesy of Bodycote Hot Isostatic
Pressing AB Surahammar, Sweden
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Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP Applications
Medical Implants and
Other Highly Stressed
Precision Castings
Medical implants and other highly
stressed precision castings
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Metal Matrix Composites
(WC-Co and Diamond Tools etc)
Growing application (diamond
tools) WC-Co market may come
back-new high performance low
Co grades
Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP Applications
P/M Superalloys, Jet
Engine
Turbine Hardware
Small but established application.
Parts can be HIPped to Near Net
Shape. Sometimes a billet is
HIPped followed by extrusion and
isothermal forging
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Advanced Ceramics
and Ceramic Armor
(Silicon Nitride, Silicon Carbide,
Boron Nitride, Boron Carbide,
Titanium Boride, Spinels,
Alumina and others)
Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP Applications
Sputtering
Targets
Small and growing application.
HIPing of target materials and
bonding of target material to
substrate
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Automotive Aluminum
Castings
(Engine blocks, turbocharger
rotors, oil trays etc.)
Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP Applications
Advanced Materials
and Structures
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Fuel cells
Super conductor materials
Piezoelectric materials
Specific diffusion bonding applications
Nano-powder compaction
Post densification of MIM and PIM
parts for demanding applications
Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP Systems from Avure Technologies
QUINTUS Hot Isostatic Pressing Systems
Main customer values:
• Superior safety ”Leak before break” as
defined by the ASME code
• Unmatched cost of ownership
• Unmatched performance and reliability
• Practically no limitations in size of presses
• Backing all the way by Avure
Technologies-The world’s leading high
pressure company
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Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP System Scope
Equipment Scope of HIP Press
HIP Furnace and
Cooling (URC) System
Power Supply,
VRT:s and MCC
Gas Compressor
System
Closed loop
cooling System
PLC
Scada type HMI
Data Acquisition
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Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP System
The Pressure Vessel is the Backbone of any HIP System
 Leak before break
 No built-in stress concentrations
 No real size and pressure limitations
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for vessels and frames
Efficient cooling of the cylinder
The need for frequent safety related
maintenance is eliminated
All QUINTUS® vessels are based upon
design criteria given in ASME B&PV Code,
Section VIII, Division 3
All CE-marked QUINTUS® vessels meet
the European Pressure Equipment Directive
Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP System Installation
2.05 m dia x 4.3 m tall HIP System
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Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP System Installation
2.05 m dia x 4.3 m tall HIP System for
Japan
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Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP System Furnaces
HIP Furnaces
 If the pressure vessel is the backbone
of every HIP system then the furnace
is the heart
 HIP furnaces can be supplied as either
multi-zone radiation furnaces or single
level heated (patented) convection
furnaces
 Elaborate designs and experience are
necessary in order to satisfy insulation,
temperature accuracy, rapid cooling and
reliability requirements
 Avure’s furnaces are outstanding in all
respects and offer great value to HIP
system users
 HIP furnaces are mainly built of steel,
molybdenum or graphite depending on
operating temperature
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Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP System Efficiency
URC Uniform Rapid Cool
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HIP furnaces must have excellent
insulation capacity to protect the pressure
vessel from overheating
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URC means interrupting the insulating
capacity of the furnace in a controlled
manner to shorten cycle time or to
achieve some kind of heat treatment as
an add on to the HIP cycle
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During URC vast amounts of energy are
trans-fered out of the HIP vessel in a
short period of time
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Only thin-walled vessels will allow URC
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URC at rates of 100 Deg C/min or more
can be achieved
Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP System Efficiency
URC Uniform Rapid Cool
HIP Cycle: Conventional Cooling Versus URC
Typical HIP
Cycle with and
without URC
1 Vacuum
2 Equalization
3 Pumping
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4 Heating
5 Holding
6 Cooling
7 Equalization
8 Backpumping
9 Release
Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP System Efficiency
URC Uniform Rapid Cool
URC Conditions
Furnace dia., 1250 mm
Ditto height,
2100 mm
Load weight, 2500 kg
Temp
Time
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Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP System Auxiliary Equipment
Gas Compressor System
The object of the gas compressor system
is to pump the process gas (argon or
nitrogen) in and out of the pressure vessel.
A typical gas handling cycle consists of:
• Evacuating air out of the pressure vessel
• Gas inlet (equalisation) from a gas storage
• Pumping (while heating) to the maximum
pressure in the vessel
• Decompression of gas into the
gas storage
• Recovery pumping to approx.
40 bar in the vessel
• Dumping of the gas into the
atmosphere
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Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP System Auxiliary Equipment
Closed Loop Cooling System
 The object of the closed loop cooling system
is to cool the pressure vessel during the HIP cycle
 The system is provided with necessary pumps,
valves heat exchanger and flow meters
 The system normally also is provided with a water
tank that will take up the surge of energy coming out
of the system during rapid cooling
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Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP System Auxiliary Equipment
Power Supply System
 The object of the power supply system
is to provide motors, actuators and
furnace with power
 The furnace power is controlled either
over SCRs and single phase
transformers or with the aid of VRTs
 For large HIP systems the installed
power is several MVA and massive
busbar systems are required to transfer
the power to the furnace
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Avure Confidential, 2012
HIP System Auxiliary Equipment
Control System And Scada Type HMI
PLC
The object of the control system
is to provide functionality for:
• Control logic and interlocks
• Furnace power control (cascade)
• Temperature control during URC
• Human/machine interface for system
status and HIP cycle data visualisation
as well as cycle recipe down loads
• Data acquisition and communication
with higher level computers
• Modem “dial in” for remote system
diagnostics
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Control
Cubicle
HMI
HMI
Ethernet
Dial In
Switch
TPC/IP
Field Bus Communication
Distributed
I/O:s
Switch
Gear/MCC
Avure Confidential, 2012
Gas
Compressor
Cooling
System
TC Inputs
What does Powder do for all of us?
• Powder opens new
markets:
– Cuts end customer
lead time & cost
– Increases quality and
execution
– New markets for
existing HIPs
– New markets for
small/medium sized
HIPs
– New markets for very
large HIPs
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HIP is the ultimate heat treatment
equipment !
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TeraPi - QIH 3.14 x 5.0-1050-1250 MURC
Mezzanine plan for easy operation
– Upper floor for production operation
– Lower floor for maintenance operation
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Avure Confidential, 2012
Tera-HIP’s Background
• PM production of Gas Atomized Powder (GAP) increases
roughly 15% per year
– Within 3 years the yearly production of gas atomized powder will increase
by 25,000 tons!
• Erasteel – increases production with 8,000 ton/year…2012
• Carpenter – increases production with 10,000 ton/year…2014
• Atmix – increases production with 7,000 ton/year…2013
– Equaling 5 HIPs of Surahammer size (1,75 ID x 3,3 H)
• Water atomized powder (+3-5% p.a.)
– Total production 1.5 Mton/year
– Targeting 10% for conversion to HIP
• Equaling 20-30 HIP’s of Surahammer size
• The market requires larger HIP’s
with increased throughput Tera HIP
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Avure Confidential, 2012
TeraPi – Some interesting facts
Each frame = 50 tons (4 frames)
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Cylinder weight = 158 tons
Wire = 14.3 m/kg
Totaling: 5100 km of wire
- Distance from Seattle, WA to Orlando, FL
- Kiruna to Gibraltar
- Moscow to Irkutsk
Elongation ~ 0.3% meaning = about 16 km
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Avure Confidential, 2012
Objects for TeraPi
HIPed impellers for desalting and hydro power production
Superduplex cast stainless steel impeller for seawater
desalination system
Martensitic stainless steel hydro energy
turbine blade
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Avure Confidential, 2012
Remove Welds in Current Large Pipe
Flange Designs
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PM/HIP Offshore Deep Sea Manifolds
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Power Plant Components
• Reactor coolant
pumps
• Reactor vessels
• Pressurizers
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Forged Parts
Reactor Pressure Vessel
Reactor Pressure Vessel
Reactor Pressure Vessel
Core Region Shell
Bottom Petal
Integrated Type Closure Head
Dimension:
295” od X 156” H
(mm)
62
Dimension:
300” od X 63” H
(mm)
Dimension:
158” od X 67” H
(mm)
Weight:
127 ton
Weight:
80 ton
Weight:
38 ton
Material:
ASME SA508,
CL.3EQ.
Material:
ASME SA508,
CL.3EQ.
Material:
ASME SA508,
CL.3EQ.
Avure Technologies
Thank you for your
attention!
How can we help you
grow and be more
successful in your
business?
63
Avure Confidential, 2012
Avure HIP References

Out of the some 30 HIP systems with a hot zone
diameter > 1000 mm sold in the world, Avure has
delivered or has on order ~26

Avure has delivered approx. 65 % of all
production HIP units in the world

Avure is the only supplier who has delivered
hot unload convection furnaces

Avure has supplied the largest HIP system
in the world with useful dia. 2.05 m
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Avure Confidential, 2012
Avure HIP References
Avure—The Low Risk/High Value Supplier
 Superior safety ”Leak before break”
 Longest cyclic life and lowest weight
 Unmatched HIP furnace performance
 Wide variety of HIP furnace options e.g. molybdenum,
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graphite, stainless steel and “black steel”
Un-paralleled rapid cool performance due
to thin-walled pressure vessel design
Cold or hot load/unload furnaces
Advanced system control with cascade control
of furnace temperature
Advanced and operator friendly HMI solutions
Outstanding documentation
Modem “dial in” remote diagnostics
Avure Confidential, 2012
Avure HIP References
Avure—The Low Risk/High Value Supplier
 Broadest competence base in the business
 50 years of un-interrupted high-pressure
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business history
More resources than any competitor
( > 150 people devoted to High Pressure Technology)
Widest product range
Most references
Technology leader
Market leader
Global company
Devoted to partnership relations with customers
and suppliers
Global service organization
Strong emphasis on service, retro-fit and up-grading
Avure Confidential, 2012
System Safety
Incident 2004-06-28
Incident with an Avure Cold Isostatic Press in Germany
 A QUINTUS Cold Isostatic Press had been delivered 1967
and had been operated between 400 and 600 MPa with an
average pressure of 530 MPa
 Due to mechanical damage (most likely scratching of the
vessel wall) the cylinder cracked in a controlled manner as
anticipated
 The total number of cycles were approximately 50 000, which
was beyond the calculated (fracture mechanics) life of the
vessel
The
customer
replaces
theforging
vessel
with
a new
 No
parts
broke loose.
The cracked
was
safely
containedQUINTUS
by the wire ®
mantle
Cold Isostatic Press
 The multi layer redundant wire package was intact
Avure Technologies
Avure Confidential, 2012