There are a few methods of hot isostatic pressing (or
HIPing) powder metals. The most common goes like this:
1. A powder part is pre-sintered, or a fabricated "can" is filled with powder, usually under inert gas protection.
2. The can is placed in an autoclave which is backfilled with argon.
3. Heating elements inside the sealed autoclave heat up the argon and the can.
4. As the can warms up, it reaches near melting point, or the "mushy zone". The argon is also heating up and, as you know, when a gas is heated in a confined space the result is pressure increase. (This is assisted by high pressure gas injection into the autoclave).
5. Since the "can" has spaces in it (between powder particles) the pressure of the gas uniformly squeezes the powder closer together, resulting in a [nearly] fully dense "compact".
Here's a decent overview:
I'm not fully familiar with HIPing castings, but it is a fairly common procedure to remove porosity.