Shaping the material world

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Hyperion Materials & Technologies makes a difference that matters in dozens of critical industries

Whenever imagination, effort, and boldness combine, the world moves a little further forward. The engineers, scientists, and technicians at Hyperion Materials & Technologies know a little something about that, especially since a routine day at their workplace may require re-creating the internal temperature and pressure of a volcano or designing a new type of cutting tool for an industry-changing application.

Specialists in the creation of advanced hard and super-hard materials such as cemented carbide, polycrystalline diamond (PCD), cubic boron nitride (CBN), and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN), Hyperion delivers novel cutting and forming tools, blanks, cut shapes, and polishing and grinding solutions for a range of industries.

The company’s scope is broad and deep; for example, it creates rotary cutting systems used to make face masks, diapers, cleansing wipes, and feminine care products; carbide, PCD and PCBN materials for energy and aerospace applications; carbide tooling for food processing and food and beverage can production; and powders and slurries used to perfect medical and communication devices.

Hyperion’s product development, engineering and application teams help their clients meet their most challenging efficiency and process improvement goals. From developing customized drilling, completion, and flow solutions for oil and gas and mining enterprises to developing unique wear-resistant components to improve the lifespan and productivity of finished goods, Hyperion is an extraordinary partner.

“We position our customers to win. That's our mission. That's our purpose,” Biju Varghese, Vice President who oversees the company’s Engineered Solutions businesses and global Research and Development team, told BOSS. “We accomplish this through our very passionate people and their expertise, our proven track record of materials innovation and product quality, and our consistent business processes that support continuous improvement.”

Headquartered in Worthington, Ohio, the private equity-owned enterprise operates 11 manufacturing plants around the globe, runs three R&D centers where new materials are conceived and created, and employs about 1,600 people worldwide.

The Problem Solvers

 Hyperion’s engineered solutions help clients reach their business goals, such as reducing total operating costs, curbing downtime, eliminating scrap, improving productivity, or meeting accelerated levels of demand.

A deep understanding of customer needs is the primary driver of Hyperion’s success. As Varghese illustrated, “A customer may want to machine a super alloy material used in aircraft engines and want to quickly double their throughput. We take that challenge, translate it to specific material performance targets, and begin researching recipes of ingredients and processing methods to achieve desired material properties. What are the ingredients that come together to create a certain property? Those ingredients make a great deal of difference, as do their relative proportions and the way they are blended.

“The challenge is that you don't know whether you will get the hardness, toughness, or whatever property is needed from that recipe. That kind of knowledge is where R&D comes in. We have to bring in a lot of scientific tools such as material modeling and simulations and do lots of structured experiments to figure it out. Oftentimes as you put ingredients together, challenges arise. Ingredients may not blend in the proper way, or some of them might react with each other in uncontrolled ways and completely change the game. We've got to deal with all of those challenges and figure things out relying on both scientific reasoning and carefully planned experimentation.”

As new materials are developed with unique properties, new ways of machining and forming are required. “That's where our process engineering teams come into play,” Varghese said. “If the material is difficult to machine, or if it requires ultra precision, we develop new or improved processing methods to efficiently machine or shape these new materials. Sometimes there are new demands — not just hardness, toughness, and wear resistance — but developing materials for use in challenging environments where high temperature, corrosion and erosion issues come into play.”

Varghese oversees an R&D team of roughly 10 technicians and 35 engineers, two thirds of whom are PhDs. “Our engineers have expertise in diverse areas such as material science, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering and even geophysics. Our technicians have 25 to 30 years of fantastic hands-on experience. They work closely with engineers, often providing them with new insights on processing methods. We are very open to such learning experiences. I value the contributions of our technicians as much as those of our best engineers on the team.”

Lean principles and that way of working is being adopted in every department of the company. “We focus on customers, solving problems, and always being in a mode to learn from each other,” he noted. Hyperion’s leadership maintains an open-door policy where questions from all levels of the organization are welcome. It’s a comfort level not commonly found in industrial companies of Hyperion’s ilk.

Whether simulating the conditions necessary to create an industrial diamond or making a forming tool that can shape razor-thin aluminum into beverage cans at speeds faster than the eye can see, Hyperion’s team of scientists and technicians thrive in a learning-centric culture.

“This is a very rich environment in terms of learning, and our people are highly specialized. The R&D and engineering team’s work is only half the story. The new materials that are developed are made into useful products in large volumes to the highest quality standards and reliability, thanks to the expertise of our operations team. We are always trying to learn from each other, and that's an important part of the culture. It's not perfect, but we are all on the journey together.” An ecosystem of mighty problem solvers dedicated to learning, supporting each other, and putting customers above all? That sounds perfect to us.