Hot isostatic pressing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9573334-B2
Application number	US-201414782949-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 2, 2014
Priority date	May 28, 2013
Publication date	Feb 21, 2017
Grant date	Feb 21, 2017

Abstract

Provided is a hot isostatic pressing (HIP) device ( 1 ) that can efficiently cool a hot zone during HIP processing while restraining temperatures in the lower part of a high-pressure container. This HIP device ( 1 ) is provided with the following: gas-impermeable casings ( 3, 4 ) that surround an object to be processed (W); a heating unit ( 7 ) that is disposed inside these casings and forms a hot zone around the object to be processed (W); a high-pressure container ( 2 ); and a cooling unit that guides a pressure-medium gas cooled on the outside of the casings into the hot zone to cool the hot zone. The cooling unit comprises the following: a gas introduction unit that introduces the pressure-medium gas that has been cooled on the outside of the casings ( 3, 4 ) into the hot zone; and a cooling promotion unit ( 37 ) that cools the pressure medium gas by causing the pressure-medium gas that has been cooled on the outside of the casings to exchange heat with a base ( 11 ) of the high-pressure container ( 2 ).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A hot isostatic pressing device comprising:
a gas-impermeable casing that is arranged so as to surround a workpiece;
a heating unit that is provided inside the casing so as to form a hot zone around the workpiece, thereby making it possible to perform hot isostatic pressing processing to the workpiece by using a pressure-medium gas in the hot zone;
a high-pressure container that surrounds a space where the heating unit and the casing are housed and that includes a base that closes the space from below; and
a cooling unit that cools the hot zone by guiding, into the hot zone, the pressure-medium gas having been cooled while flowing from above to below outside the casing,
wherein the cooling unit comprises:
a gas introduction unit that guides the pressure-medium gas cooled outside the casing, from a lower part of the high-pressure container to an upper part of the hot zone into the hot zone, in such a manner that the pressure-medium gas should not meet the pressure-medium gas inside the hot zone; and
a cooling promotion unit that cools the pressure-medium gas having been cooled outside the casing by allowing the pressure-medium gas to exchange heat with the base.

2. The hot isostatic pressing device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the casing includes a casing body having a lower-side opening, and a casing base that closes the lower-side opening of the casing body,
a gas storage unit that stores the pressure-medium gas to be introduced to the gas introduction unit is provided between the base and the casing base, in a state of being separated from the space outside the casing, and
the cooling promotion unit sends the pressure-medium gas having exchanged heat with the base to the gas storage unit.

3. The hot isostatic pressing device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the cooling promotion unit includes a gas cooling flow passage that is formed inside the base and guides the pressure-medium gas having cooled outside the casing so that the pressure-medium gas circulates through the inside of the base.

4. The hot isostatic pressing device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the cooling promotion unit includes a heat exchanger that causes heat exchange between the pressure-medium gas having been cooled outside the casing and the base.

5. The hot isostatic pressing device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a base cooling unit that forcibly cools the base by flowing another refrigerant than the pressure-medium gas through the base.

6. The hot isostatic pressing device according to claim 1 , wherein a lower part of the high pressure container contains at least one electrical component selected from the group consisting of a fan, motor, valve, actuator, contact points and thermocouple.

Assignees

• Kobe Steel Ltd

Inventors

• Nakai Tomomitsu
• Watanabe Katsumi
• Yoneda Makoto

Classifications

• H10P72/0434

  mainly by convection · CPC title

• B28B3/006

  Pressing by atmospheric pressure, as a result of vacuum generation or by gas or liquid pressure acting directly upon the material, e.g. jets of compressed air (moulds for treating with gases or degassing B28B7/44; compacting concrete by means of vacuum in general E04G21/061) · CPC title

• F27D9/00

  Cooling of furnaces or of charges therein (casings, linings, walls or roofs incorporating cooling arrangements F27D1/12) · CPC title

• F27D7/06

  Forming or maintaining special atmospheres or vacuum within heating chambers (supplying steam, vapour, gases or liquids F27D7/02) · CPC title

• F27D7/04

  Circulating atmospheres by mechanical means · CPC title