Quintus Technologies Introduces the Purus® Toolbox
Answering the call from producers of advanced components such as medical implants, turbine blades, and rocket engine nozzles, Quintus Technologies has developed a toolbox enabling unoxidized component surfaces after Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP), removing the need for difficult, costly, or hazardous pre- and post-processing.
“Oxidized component surfaces, and especially alpha cased titanium components—a brittle oxygen-enriched surface layer formed on titanium alloys during high temperature processes—are prone to crack initiation and therefore detrimental to component strength and reliability in operation,” said Peter Henning, Director Marketing & Sales, Quintus Technologies.
“The oxygen, causing the oxidation during the process, originates from various sources, all of which must be controlled to ensure component performance. The oxidation issue is today (when at all possible) mitigated either by manually wrapping of all individual components in metal foil before the process, or by removing all oxidized surfaces using machining or etching with chemicals after the process.”
Using the Quintus Purus toolbox, which consists of excellent practice in HIP operation, new HIP equipment hardware and software capabilities, and bespoke oxygen getter cassettes, most of these issues can be avoided or substantially reduced. This gives rise to reduced cost and environmental impact of manufacturing components, as well as design advantages.
The issues around oxidized intricate surface structures and locations, which are difficult to inspect, are getting increased attention as additive manufacturing (AM) continues to expand the possibilities to design and build increasingly complex, functional structures. Examples of complex structure include trabecular structures designed for bone ingress of cementless medical implants, and the narrow media channels as used for cooling and fuel transport in high-temperature jet engines and space propulsion.
The concept behind Purus was developed, tested, and tuned over several years in Quintus Application Centers in Västerås, Sweden, and Columbus, Ohio, US, and then verified in beta testing by select partners requesting the functionality to support their business opportunities.
Since the beta tests have shown that exceptional results can be achieved, the Quintus Purus toolbox is now made available as a retrofit to an existing Compact HIP system or as a feature to a new system.
“Purus makes it possible to produce ‘ready-for-use’ complex surfaces directly from the HIP process without having to manually wrap each component in metal foil, nor remove oxidized surfaces by machining or chemical etching after the process.
This reduces energy consumption, cost of manufacturing, and the need for hazardous chemicals,” explained Jan Söderström, CEO and President, Quintus Technologies. “This innovation is yet another example on how we collaborate with our customers to create mutual and environmentally sustainable business opportunities.”
