Automotive die casting is a manufacturing process. In this process, molten metal is injected into a reusable mold under high pressure. The metals typically used are aluminum, magnesium, or zinc. This technique creates complex shapes. These parts have high dimensional accuracy and excellent surface finishes.
Many automotive parts are produced through die casting. These include:
- Cylinder heads and blocks
- Gearboxes and housings
- Control arms and knuckles
- Brackets and chassis components
- Connectors and housings
The manufacturers usually use aluminum, magnesium, or zinc metal. Because parts of these materials are lighter, vehicles can use less fuel.
Do you know manufacturers make 70% of vehicle parts using die casting?
Let’s learn the fundamental value of automotive die-casting components in producing secure, fuel-efficient, and performance-oriented vehicles.
Automotive Die Casting Components
The metal parts manufacturers make for automotive industries via die-casting are known as automotive die-casting components. Because of the die-casting method, you can get accurate shapes with smooth finishes and durability.
Aluminum alloys are the leading material options. You can make lighter parts with these that consume less fuel. In die casting technique, firstly the chosen metal is melted at the melting points (e.g., aluminum melting point is 660.3 °C). Manufacturers then use high pressure to transfer this molten material into a mold, also known as a die.
Focus on various casting parameters like mold temperature (150-300°C), injection pressure (10-200 MPa), and cooling time (5-30 seconds) for high quality. This efficient method supports complex designs and mass production. You can benefit from it for the automotive industry’s demands.
Types of Automotive Die Casting Components
Engine Components
Automotive die casting components components include cylinder heads, engine blocks, and crankcases, power the vehicle. They use plenty of fuel to create motions. Additionally, these parts of the vehicle handle high temperatures and do not accumulate excessive heat. For example, they can manage intense temperatures and pressures of as much as 300 °C and 200 bar, respectively.
Aluminum material choice can really accelerate the construction of vehicle parts, as it also improves molten material flow by up to 40% during the injection. So, a better flow of metal will evenly fill the inside surface of a mold and reduce defects. Moreover, proper cooling systems help solidify the metal evenly and prevent cracks. For example, if you are using a water-cooled mold, then maintain its temperature up to 30 to 50 °C.
All the right die-casting methods and programming contribute to getting strong and perfect prices without warping. Also, beside crack protection, these methods give you the best quality result with consistency.
Sometimes, you need precise dimensions for fitting and critical performance. Therefore, automotive die casting is the solution that gives you as little as 0.1 mm dimension’s accuracy.
Transmission and Drivetrain Components
The transmission and drivetrain components, like gearboxes and differential housings in automotive applications, take power from engines. So that they deliver to the wheels. That ultimately makes them begin to rotate and move the vehicle forward.
They face high torque and rotational forces. So, manufacturers prefer materials like magnesium and aluminum alloys for this. These metals decrease weight up to 30% and keep it around 20 to 50 kg.
Additionally, you must add strength in these parts to deal with high torque. That can be around 200-500 Nm, but totally depending on the vehicle. Further, the part’s durability you should maintain must be around 150,000+ miles.
If you consider all these necessary aspects during manufacturing, then your parts will smoothly transfer power. They will cause no jerks or noise, like in automatic cars. In fact, precise manufacturing minimizes cracks, wear, misalignment, and gear slipping in these essential parts.
Structural Components
Generally, suspension parts in vehicles handle loads of 10,000–15,000 N. These are the elements that manufacturers make to absorb shocks up to 3,000 N. They effectively manage road bumps, potholes, or sudden braking.
Using aluminum material is a good choice because of its lightweight options. The manufacturers use heat treatment around 300–500 °C for aluminum alloys. So, they improve the overall strength of parts and reduce defects.
Because selecting poor material or design can make your part fail to perform under harsh situations. They can cause bending, fractures, or wear. Therefore, the right material and design-accuracy parts support the vehicle’s weight, reduce vibrations, and absorb road shocks.
Electrical Components
The electrical component in automotive supply powers into vehicles and controls signals. They protect the sensitive systems. Examples are connectors, wiring harnesses, relays, sensors, switches, and control modules.
The manufacturers produce wiring connectors, which add sufficient power, such as 10–50 amps, to power lights, sensors, and electronics. They make wiring harness bundles where one or more wires are routed along and organize them for proper connections.
You can extend the life of these sensitive parts up to 10+ years by applying coatings. Moreover, the use of zinc or aluminum prevents corrosion. Additionally, accurate product profile dimensions and designs avoid overheating, loose connections, or failures. So you can save your parts and enable them to work reliably in all conditions.
Benefits of Automotive Die Casting Components
- As we already read, die casting in the automotive industry reduces the weight of parts like engine blocks or transmissions by around 30%.
- For instance, if you produce an aluminum gearbox part with die casting, then your part might contain 25% less weight in contrast with a steel one.
- The lightweight die-casting part improves fuel economy in vehicles by up to 10%.
- Die casting processes do not waste the material pallets and can save up to 15% in production costs in comparison to other machining processes like forging.
- Choosing the right product profile and making drastic changes in design features allow you to avoid extra steps like grinding or polishing. As a result, mold seamlessly produces fine edges with smooth surfaces.
- You can also browse for advanced cooling channels to reduce cracks and increase part strength.
- This process allows you to get detailed parts with minimal thickness and dimensional accuracy of around 0.05 mm.
- The perfect fit designs can be achieved via this technique.
- The manufacturers use die casting to make vehicle parts safer and more efficient by giving them the necessary aspects, such as innovative designs and aesthetic appearances.
Manufacturing Process and Techniques
Steps involved in the die-casting process
Normally, the diecasting of automotive components involves four main steps that could be:
- Melting
- Injection
- Solidification
- Ejection
Firstly, we choose a material like aluminum. Then, we melt its pallets in a furnace until they reach a temperature of around 700 °C. All materials have different melting points, such as Aluminum melting at 660.3 °C, Magnesium melting at 650 °C, and Zinc melting at 419 °C.
When these small particles convert into liquid forms, the manufacturers pour them into molds, known as the injection process.
These molds contain the same product shape. After this, they apply high pressure, which can range from 10 to 100 bar for magnesium or aluminum metals. The metal starts changing its liquid form into solid as the cooling channels like air or cold water flow around the mold.
The solidification process usually takes 10 to 100 seconds to harden the parts. And in the ejection phase, parts become ready for removal.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Die Casting Techniques
High-Pressure Die Casting:
Among the different manufacturing options, high-pressure die casting is the leading one. That uses a pressure of up to 100 bar to inject the metal into the mold. This technique allows you to make strong parts and take less time for production cycles. However, the mold that manufacturers employ in this setup is as costly as $5,000 to $10,000 per mold.
Low-pressure Die Casting:
You should prefer the low-pressure die-casting process of bigger or bigger parts of automotive applications. Because it uses less pressure, which can be around 10 bars, and does not harm the actual shape of the parts filling the mold properly.
This method consumes more time in making delicate parts but can be less costly (ranging from $1,000 to $3,000) than high-pressure systems.
Thixocasting:
The need for specialized billet and machinery in thixocasting makes it costly compared to other methods. Manufacturers use these machines to mix the metal particles before changing them in the mold. You can produce parts with fewer defects. This method can also reduce material waste by up to 20%.
Computer-aided Design (CAD) and Manufacturing (CAM)
Combining your die-casting process with computer-aided design (CAD) and manufacturing (CAM) applications raises your production level. You can start designing your mold shape using CAD software.
This software depicts the actual appearance and identifies the areas where changes are needed. So, ultimately, you have the mold design just right before we start making the mold. It can take around 2 to 5 days.
CAM tools control machinery setups to make the mold and vehicle parts according to your designs. It typically takes 5 to 10 days (depending on the specifics of the project) to complete and produces output with few defects.
Importance of Proper Die Design and Maintenance
Choose the material of die wisely while weiging your product parameters. Because proper die design and its performance can totally transform the shape of products. It also impacts the production quality and cycle time.
For example, if you design mold in a well, you can increase production speed by up to 30% and reduce costs by up to 20%.
Additionally, every machining part needs regular maintenance, and so do these mold designs. Inspect their functional fault and immediately make changes to prevent wear and tear.
Common Quality Control Methods
When the product is ready, the manufacturers use various quality control methods. For example, X-ray inspection for internal flaws, dye penetration for surface cracks, and ultrasonic testing for material integrity verification.
In this way, they can ensure you die-cast parts according to your expectations.
They check the size and shape of the profile product and make sure their designs are snap-fit. This process is also called dimensional inspection.
They also find the leak areas and fix them by applying sealant joints or other adhesive glues. Additionally, every part contains some specific structural features, so the die casters see if the part retains material properties during metallurgical analysis.
Quality inspection phases are necessary, especially for automotive die-casting components. It allows us to find errors early and eliminate any accidental damages, enhancing the performance.
Material Selection and Properties
| Materials | Alloys Types | Tensile strength | Yield strength | Fatigue strength | Ductility |
| Aluminum Alloys ( in 60% of die-casting parts) | A380, A383, A413, and ADC12 | 250-300 MPa | 150-200 MPa | 100-150 MPa | 10-20% |
| Zinc Alloys (in 20% of die-casting parts) | Zamak 3, Zamak 5, and ZA-27 | 250-350 MPa | 200-250 MPa | 150-200 MPa | 10-20% |
| Magnesium Alloys (in 10% of die-casting parts) | AZ91D, AM60B, and AE44 | 200-250 MPa | 150-200 MPa | 100-150 MPa | 10-20% |
| Copper Alloys (in 5% of die-casting parts) | C85800, C86200, and C86400 | 300-400 MPa | 200-250 MPa | 150-200 MPa | 10-20% |
Other Materials
- You can use Tin Alloys for soldering and brazing applications
- Lead alloys are the options for battery and radiation shielding applications
- High-temperature parts like vehicles can be made with Nickel Alloys
- Titanium is the toughest metal and provides sufficient strength for aerospace and biomedical applications.
Conclusion:
The manufacturer creates automotive parts via the die-casting process. They focus on reducing the actual weight so that the parts increase fuel efficiency in vehicles. Besides several features like corrosion resistance, strength durability, and even smooth surfaces, you can obtain with this method. The common metals you can choose from are aluminum, magnesium, and zinc. Find your expert die-casting team like Alu Die Casting.