Within the aerospace industry the use of high-pressure typically reduce, or even eliminate, the need for labor hand correction and the need for intermediate heat treatments.
In all applications the high-pressure support forming of complex and intricate shapes, at excellent repeatability and part quality.
Warm Isostatic Pressing (WIP) entails subjecting components or powder in moulds to extreme isostatic pressure, up to 600 MPa (87,022psi) and at ambient temperature. Common pressure media include water, emulsion or oil and in some cases components my be bagged.
The batch characteristic is an important topic for discussion. Our simulation shows that automation of the loading, unloading and densification won’t be a challenge for the implementation of isostatic pressing in the overall process. Additionally, the speed of stacking/winding is limiting the process speed before densification.
When powder is subjected to high pressure in a mold, it can be compacted into a solid with a density of up to 95%, depending on the material used.
High Pressure Heat Treatment (HPHTᵀᴹ) is the term used by Quintus for heat treatment in combination with steered heating and HIP processing. The steered cooling capability in Quintus equipment allows heat treatment directly after the densification steps.
HPHTᵀᴹ utilises convection of the HIP pressure medium over cold surfaces inside the HIP vessel. These cold surfaces are made possible through cooling due to the design of the Quintus equipment. The flow of gas can be controlled and directed allowing you to steer cooling at a specific rate. Quintus URC® and URQ® technologies are key in making this possible.
Quintus is primarily a hardware provider, but do have a very strong application support team, providing training in the Flexform process, including tool design, forming and forming simulation on request.
Due to our unmatched high-pressure experience, we trust we can provide the best product available in the market. Our unique wire-winding technology allow high-pressure processing, with numerous of sheet metal fabrication quality advantages, as well as economic advantages. The wire-winding technology also provide an unmatched equipment life and reliability.
Flexform is a low-cost sheet metal hydroform technology, ideally suited for low volume production. Flexform use only one single rigid tool half and a flexible rubber diaphragm, backed up by high-pressure hydraulic oil. Typical Flexform production volumes range from a few parts per year and per tool, up to a few thousand parts.
Flexform is since decades well established within the aerospace industry, both for airframe, engine and space sheet metal part production. The aerospace industry request for high quality parts in relatively small volumes of each, at a high variety, make the technology a perfect fit.
The technology is also a great fit for all industries where prototyping and low volume production is required, such as automotive, busses, trucks, yellow goods, food processing equipment, white goods, building façades etc.
Beside the final part quality, the main perceived benefit is the low fabrication cost. This due to the low tool cost involved. The process also allows for several tools and parts to be produced in one and the same forming operation. 50-90% of conventional 2-piece tool cost may typically be saved by using the Flexform technology.
As a science based technology, HPP is not only fully recognized by global regulatory bodies as an antimicrobial process with superior capabilities for inactivating many food pathogens of concern, but also for slowing down the growth of spoilage bacteria, thereby extending refrigerated shelf life between 2-10 times longer than unprocessed foods. Both these benefits alone can have a significant
impact on the global challenges of food safety and food waste.
Most conventional food processing methods such as heat and/or chemicals have negative effects on health and nutrition. Consumers are demanding high nutritional values in foods, particularly those present in fresh, raw, or minimally processed varieties. HPP does not affect nutritional components in foods largely because it has no effects on covalent bonds so HPP products maintain their vitamins and bioactive compounds.
Manufacturers using HPP eliminate chemical preservatives used to control microbial growth and reduce the frequency of food safety testing, thus satisfying the demand from customers for preservative-free foods, while reducing operational costs, hence delivering higher company values. HPP has thus become the process of choice among non-thermal food processing technologies. The
assurance of inactivating foodborne pathogens, post packaging, provides food and beverage manufacturers the business-critical food safety confidence for protecting their consumers, as well as ensuring that their brands and company reputations remain untarnished.
HPP is commercially used in wide range of foods and beverages such as ready-to-eat deli meats, fruit and dairy based drinks, baby foods, dairy products, pet food, ready meals, ready-to-cook marinated meats and meals, seafood, and wide variety of plant-based products including guacamole, hummus, salsa, ready-to-eat salads, tofu and plant-based protein meat analogues.
Most food and beverages are applicable for HPP technology. However, certain intrinsic and extrinsic factors are important in determining HPP conditions and satisfying regulatory rules and guidelines.
We support the customers throughout the complete HPP development process. From recipes to packaging to designing and providing in-house validation services. Our comprehensive evaluation and support is geared for getting your product in the market quickly.
Our Quintus ® Care Program reflects our culture of true partnership, as witnessed by near three quarters of a century pioneering pressure technologies. Your immediate and long term benefits of Quintus ® Care includes controlling ongoing operational costs, guaranteed access to parts, regular technical reviews and remedial training, application support, as well as opportunities to participate in ongoing educational seminars
During HPP the pressure reaches up to 6,000 bar (87,000 psi). At this pressure, products will compress approximately 15% of their volume, meaning that HPP packaging must be waterproof, hermetically sealed, and include materials which are flexible to withstand compressions of at least 15%. For these reasons, different plastic materials have traditionally been a popular choice for HPP since many of these are flexible enough to allow containers to compress without breaking and elastic enough to retake their original shapes after the process. Additionally, several sustainable alternatives can be used with HPP such as rPET, PP, PLA and other biodegradable solutions.
Commonly used packaging and materials for HPP include bottles, cups, pouches, trays, in combination with various types of films or closures. Sealing surfaces for films need to be relatively wide, uniform and preferably flat. Sealability (heat seal strength) is an important element for packaging that is subjected to HPP. Cross-hatched patterns are not suitable as they can allow oxygen
diffusion into the packages that will contribute to oxidative deterioration of products.
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We support customer in priority order. Our Quintus care full customers are priority, secondly our Quintus care base customers and after that the broader market. Each Quintus care customer has a Key Account Manager to feed the dialog through Quintus services to you as customers.
Do you want to know more about Quintus care?
Our equipment is reliable. We are the global leader, have 60 years’ experience and our customers in general have very low cost for operating our presses. However, every machine will fail and no one can say which part and when it will fail. Because if so it would be in the maintenance manual. The applied strategy for uptime is:
Studies shows that maintenance cost for a normal machine within the Industrial sector is around 6-7%/year of the investment and our full fledge Quintus Care is normally well below that. The full fledge SLA allows you to control all the cost for the material. Whereas the base agreement leaves the material portion open for sourcing to Quintus on need basis, or towards other suppliers.
Over the years we have developed our service level agreements; Quintus care in two main offers.
The base offer gives you support priority, remote tech support, application support (some countries this cannot be offered to), annual f2f trainings and annual maintenance, safety and reliability inspection.
Quintus care full additionally to the base also includes all spare parts for preventative maintenance, as well as covering spare parts if something unexpected happens (with some exceptions).
Being proactive about maintenance with a Quintus care contract keeps your costs planned and secures the best possible uptime for your system.
