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The Importance of Die Casting Services

What is die casting?

The birth of die casting owes its origins to printing. Making printed copies of documents has been around for thousands of years. At its beginning, highly accomplished artists would carve words or pictures into wood, apply ink to the wood, and press paper against it. The result was an impression of what was carved into the wood with each print being relished as a work of art.

Johannes Gutenberg took the ancient process and improved it by inventing the movable printing press. He used much the same method as the ancient artists but used individual metal letters since wood would not be able to endure the pressure from his press. The letters were arranged in a holder, swabbed with ink, have paper placed on them, and pressed to the paper using a cranked press.

Gutenberg's method was the standard for printing for centuries and can still be seen today in the use of printing plates and rotogravure printing. The labor intensity of the old process lead to the development of the casting of individual letters in different fonts and styles. They were stored in a cabinet named the California Job Case, a cabinet that stood about five feet high with thin drawers holding all the different fonts and letters.

As the printed word became more popular with the development of newspapers and books, printing processes had to be improved and more letters manufactured. Companies produced individual letters using dies or molds of the letters.

Hot lead was poured into the mold, allowed to cool, and new letters were formed. This revolution in printing opened the path to a completely new industry called die casting.

The different types of die casting -

Die casting has used two traditional methods since its invention - cold chambered and hot chambered. The distinction between the two rests on how hard the die has to be clamped and the types of metals that can be used. Though one is named cold and the other hot, both methods use melted molten metal. The distinction is how the metal is inserted into the mold where cold chamber die casting pours in the hot melt and hot uses forced pressure.

As the name implies, hot chamber die casting involves the use of molten metal injected into a die or mold. It is sometimes referred to as gooseneck casting since the molten metal enters the die through a gooseneck. This method uses force to push the molten metal down the gooseneck as the injection mechanism is immersed in a melted metal bath. The process is very quick and able to produce multiple parts in a short time. Only metals with a low melting point are used for hot chamber die casting, which are zinc, tin, and lead alloys.

Like hot chamber die casting, cold chamber die casting begins with melted molten metal. Before being applied to the die, the metal is liquefied in a furnace. It is then moved automatically or by hand to the die where it is poured into it. A hydraulically driven piston forces the molten metal and any excess into the die. The extra melted metal is used to compensate for any possible shrinkage. The benefit of cold chamber die casting is that it can process metals that melt at a high temperature such as aluminum, magnesium, and copper and require a separate furnace to be processed.

Though hot die casting and cold die casting are the oldest and established versions of the craft, there are other methods that have developed over the years. Low pressure die casting is similar to cold die casting but done in reverse where the melted metal is pulled up into the die instead of being poured down. Vacuum die casting uses the power of a vacuum to force the molten metal into the die. Squeeze die casting is very similar to glass forming done with metal where a sheet of metal is heated to make it pliable, placed on top of the bottom of a mold, and forced into a final shape by the top of the die or mold being pressed down on it.

Die casting has been the tried and true method of part production since it was first used in 1892. Over the years, it has seen improvements, innovations and changes to fit our ever changing world, but the basic principles have remained the same through all of its developments and advances.

What items are made from die casting?

Die casting is the most popular production method for the creation of non-expendable parts. Though low pressure casting was the original method for casting parts, high pressure systems are becoming more popular with the evolution of equipment and technology. Regardless of the technique, our technically advanced society depends on parts produced in this fashion.

The automotive industry relies on die casting for producing high quality parts in mass quantities. Bumpers, doors, gaskets, engine blocks, and innumerable other components of automobiles are finely crafted by die casting. The recent concerns regarding the weight of cars has led manufacturers to find lighter pliable materials. With the rise in electronic systems in cars, die casting is used in the production of heat shields and covers to protect the sensitive technical components. Regardless of the type of part, die casting can produce it at a very reasonable cost keeping the final price of cars manageable for consumers.

Die casting has become important in the manufacture of medical devices and equipment, which has stringent requirements as regards the protection of patients and the safety of medical personnel. As the technology for medical treatment advances, the equipment designed to perform medical procedures has become more complex and challenging. To meet the growing demand, die casting engineers have been challenged to develop innovative methods and designs that can create these precise instruments.

The automotive and medical industries are a very small sample of the many ways that die casting is used. Any manufacturing concern that needs perfectly replicated parts undoubtedly uses die cast parts to produce its product.