This article discusses metal powder processing via hot isostatic pressing (HIP) and HIP cladding when metal powders are being employed in the cladding process. It traces the history of the process and details the equipment, pressing cycle, and densification mechanisms for HIP. The article describes the available process routes for fabricating products using HIP and the steps involved in the production of a part via direct HIP of encapsulated gas-atomized spherical powder. It concludes with information on the microstructures of 316L stainless steel HIP powder metallurgy valve body and a list of the mechanical properties of several powder metallurgy alloys.

This article provides a brief introduction to abrasive wear-resistant coating materials that contain a large amount of hard phases, such as borides, carbides, or carboborides. It describes some of the commonly used methods of producing thick wear-resistant coatings. The article also provides information on metal-matrix composites and cemented carbides. The three base-alloying concepts, including cobalt-, iron-, and nickel-base alloys used for wear-protection applications, are also described. The article compares the tribomechanical properties of the materials in a qualitative manner, thus allowing a rough materials selection for practitioners. It presents a brief discussion on hot isostatic pressing (HIP) cladding, sinter cladding, and manufacturing of thick wear-resistant coatings by extrusion or ring rolling. The article also discusses the processing sequence of thick wear-resistant coatings, namely, compound casting, deposition welding, and thermal spraying.

Hot isostatic pressing (HIP) is widely used within the additive manufacturing (AM) industry to improve material performance and ensure quality. This article is a detailed account of the HIP process, providing information on its equipment set up and discussing the applications, economics, and advantages of the process. The discussion also covers the use of HIP for additively manufactured material to eliminate internal defects, the HIP parameters required to eliminate internal defects, and the influence of HIP on the microstructure and properties of HIP additively manufactured material.

This article discusses two major sintering methods: pressureless and pressure-assisted sintering. Pressureless sintering techniques include vacuum and partial-pressure, hydrogen, and microwave sintering. Pressure-assisted consolidation techniques include overpressure sintering, sintering followed by postsinter hot isostatic pressing, hot pressing, and several rapid hot consolidation techniques. The article describes nitrogen sintering and the sintering of cermets. It reviews the furnaces used for sintering and presents the lubrication removal techniques. The article also outlines the need to control carbon and oxygen to obtain optimal properties and explains microstructure development and grain size control.

This article briefly describes the production of beryllium powder and beryllium/beryllium oxide metal-matrix powder. It discusses fully dense consolidation methods: vacuum hot pressing, hot isostatic pressing, and cold isostatic pressing. Secondary fabrication operations of beryllium and aluminum-beryllium alloys such as extrusion, rolling, welding, joining, and machining are discussed. The article discusses quality control and provides information on the structural, optical, and high-purity grades of beryllium.

Metal-matrix composites (MMCs) are a class of materials with a wide variety of structural, wear, and thermal management applications. This article discusses the primary processing methods used to manufacture discontinuous aluminum MMCs, namely, high-pressure die casting, pressure infiltration casting, liquid metal infiltration, spray deposition, and powder metallurgy methods. It describes the processing of continuous fiber-reinforced aluminum, discontinuously, reinforced titanium, and continuous fiber-reinforced titanium. The article concludes with information on work done to develop magnesium, copper, and superalloy MMCs.

Hot isostatic pressing (HIP) is used to eliminate porosity in castings. This article provides a history and an overview of the HIP system. It illustrates the reasons for using HIP and discusses the criteria for selecting HIP process parameters. The main mechanisms by which pores are eliminated during HIP are reviewed. The article describes the effect of HIP on the mechanical properties, shape, and structure of castings as well as the effect of inclusions on as-HIPed properties. It examines the problems encountered in HIP and their solution. The article concludes with information on the economics of HIP processing.

Titanium alloys are known for their high-temperature strength, good fracture resistance, low specific gravity, and excellent resistance to corrosion. Ti-6Al-4V is the most commonly used titanium alloy in the aerospace, aircraft, automotive, and biomedical industries. This article discusses various additive manufacturing (AM) technologies for processing titanium and its alloys. These include directed-energy deposition (DED), powder-bed fusion (PBF), and sheet lamination. The discussion covers the effect of AM on the microstructures of the materials deposited, static and mechanical properties, and fatigue strength and fracture toughness of Ti-6Al-4V.

Sintering provides the interparticle bonding that generates the attractive forces needed to hold together the otherwise loose ceramic powder mass. It also improves hardness, strength, transparency, toughness, electrical conductivity, thermal expansion, magnetic saturation, corrosion resistance, and other properties. This article discusses the fundamentals of sintering and its effects on pore structures and particle density. It addresses some of the more common sintering methods, including solid-state, liquid-phase, and gas pressure sintering, and presents alternative processes such as reaction sintering and self-propagating, high-temperature synthesis. It also describes several pressure densification methods, including hot isostatic pressing, gas pressure sintering, molten particle deposition, and sol-gel processing. The article concludes with a section on grain growth that discusses the underlying mechanisms and kinetics and the relationship between grain growth and densification.

Spray casting, also known as spray forming, is a niche casting process for the manufacture of preforms. This article lists commercial examples of alloys manufactured by spray casting and provides sequential steps of the spray casting process. Gas atomization is a chaotic, stochastic process that always produces a wide range of droplet diameters. The article schematically illustrates a typical log-normal droplet diameter probability density distribution on a mass or volume basis obtained by gas atomization. It also explains the changes in solid fraction during the spray casting process as a function of axial distance from the point of droplet atomization. The article concludes with information on the occurrence of macrosegregation and coarsening in spray cast preforms.

The residual porosity in sintered refractory metal ingots is usually eliminated by different densification processes, such as thermomechanical processes. This article focuses on thermomechanical processing of tungsten, molybdenum, and tantalum. It provides an overview of liquid-phase sintering of tungsten heavy alloys and describes the infiltration of tungsten and molybdenum for attaining full density. The article concludes by providing information on hot isostatic pressing of refractory metal alloys to full density.

Coextrusion is defined as the simultaneous extrusion of two or more metals to form an integral product that can be carried out using conventional extrusion or drawing equipment at a temperature appropriate to the metal system being formed. This article discusses the applications, billet configurations, and metal flow modes of coextrusion. It presents the analytical studies of coextrusion: deformation energy methods, lower-bound (slab) analyses, upper-bound analyses, and finite-element analyses. These studies are used to identify the regime of material properties and process variables for which sound extrusions can be obtained. The article concludes with a discussion on the state-of-the-art of coextrusion that assists in developing process models, which accurately describe both the macroscopic and microscopic aspects of a process.

Niobium-titanium alloys (NbTi) became the superconductors of choice in the early 1960s, providing a viable alternative to the A-15 compounds and less ductile alloys of niobium-zirconium. This can be attributed to the relative ease of fabrication, better electrical properties, and greater compatibility with copper stabilizing materials. This article discusses the ramifications of design requirements, selection criteria and processing methods of superconducting fibers and matrix materials. It provides information on the various steps involved in the fabrication of superconducting composites, including assembly, welding, isostatic compaction, extrusion, wire drawing, twisting, and final sizing. The article also provides a detailed account of the properties and applications of NbTi superconducting composites.

The formation of defects within additive-manufactured (AM) components is a major concern for critical structural and cyclic load applications. Thus, understanding the mechanisms of defect formation in fusion-based processes is important for prescribing the appropriate process parameters specific to the alloy system and selected processing technique. This article discusses the formation of defects within metal additive manufacturing, namely fusion-based processes and solid-state/sintering processes. Defects observed in fusion-based processes include lack of fusion, keyhole collapse, gas porosity, solidification cracking, solid-state cracking, and surface-connected porosity. The types of defects in solid-state/sintering processes are sintering porosity and improper binder burnout. The article also discusses defect-mitigation strategies, such as postprocess machining, surface treatment, and postprocessing HIP to eliminate defects detrimental to properties from the as-built condition. The use of noncontact thermal, optical, and ultrasound techniques for inspecting AM components are also considered. The final section summarizes the knowledge gap in our understanding of the defects observed within AM components.

This article describes two methods based on rolling of sheet. The first is roll welding, where two or more sheets or plates are stacked together and then passed through rolls until sufficient deformation has occurred to produce solid-state welds. The other is laser roll welding, which is a hybrid process based on a thin-melting interface for a lap joint of dissimilar-metal sheets using a roller and one-sided laser heating. The article discusses the types, advantages, and applications of roll welding and laser roll welding. It also provides a detailed discussion on the laser roll welding of dissimilar metals.

Diffusion welding involves minimal pressurization, but relatively high temperatures and long periods of time. This article discusses the process variants of diffusion welding: solid-phase and liquid-phase processes. It describes the diffusion welding of carbon and low-alloy steels, high-strength steels, stainless steels, and aluminum-base alloys. The article provides a discussion on dissimilar metal combinations, such as ferrous-to-ferrous combinations, nonferrous-to-nonferrous combinations, ferrous-to-nonferrous combinations, and metal-ceramic joining.

This article explores the possibilities and limitations imposed by manufacturing processes and materials. Detailed design rules for the processes are presented. The article lists the main features of process groups in a tabular form. The physical characteristics and ratings of relative cost and production factors are also tabulated. The process groups include casting; deformation; powder processing; machining; noncutting; joining; ceramic, glass, and polymer processing; and composites manufacturing.

The refractory metals include niobium, tantalum, molybdenum, tungsten, and rhenium. They are readily degraded by oxidizing environments at moderately low temperatures. Protective coating systems have been developed, mostly for niobium alloys, to permit their use in high-temperature oxidizing aerospace applications. This article discusses the properties, processing, applications, and classes of refractory metals and its alloys, namely molybdenum, tungsten, niobium, tantalum and rhenium. It also provides an outline of the coating processes used to improve their oxidation resistance.

This article is a comprehensive collection of terms related to metalworking operations that produce shapes from forging, extrusion, drawing, and rolling operations.