The objectives of the project were:

• To apply the powder Net Shape Hot Isostatic Pressing (NSHIP) manufacturing route to the fabrication of Astroloy casing for high speed turbine.
• To optimise the material usage reducing material waste: the specific target is to design the Hot Isostatic Pressing manufacturing step so as to provide a semi-finished part very close to the final casing profile component (aiming at achieving 2 mm or lower overstock) thus reducing as much as possible the machining efforts;
• To fine tune a post heat treatment to fully exploit the Astroloy potential thermal/mechanical resistance for casing application.

Astroloy casing cannot be manufactured by traditional processing route (forging, ring rolling, massive machining) and with respect to the currently applied process to manufacture Waspaloy casing marked material and energy efficiency improvement can be achieved as well as clear environment benefits. According to a preliminary analysis of material, energy and emission potential savings achievable by applying NSHIP with respect to the traditional forging + machining route to fabricate high speed turbine casing it can be foreseen to have:

• a ca. 82% raw material saving;
• an energy saving of ca. 82%;
• an emission reduction of ca. 81%.

In terms of cost efficiency a reduction of 57% in raw materials acquisition costs.