History: Die casting was invented by Elisha K. Root, an inventor in the employ of Samuel W. Collins at the Collins ax-making factory in Canton, Connecticut in the 1830's.
Process:
There are four major steps in the die casting process. First, the mold is sprayed with lubricant and closed. The lubricant both helps control the temperature of the die and it also assists in the removal of the casting. Molten metal is then shot into the die under high pressure; between 10—175 MPa (1,500—25,000 psi). Once the die is filled the pressure is maintained until the casting has solidified. Finally, the die is opened and the shot (shots are different from castings because there can be multiple cavities in a die, yielding multiple castings per shot) is ejected by the ejector pins. Finally, the scrap, which includes the gate, runners, sprues and flash, must be separated from the casting(s). This is often done using a special trim die in a power press or hydraulic press. An older method is separating by hand or by sawing, which case grinding may be necessary to smooth the scrap marks. A less labor-intensive method is to tumble shots if gates are thin and easily broken; separation of gates from finished parts must follow. This scrap is recycled by remelting it.
The high-pressure injection leads to a quick fill of the die, which is required so the entire cavity fills before any part of the casting solidifies. In this way, discontinuities are avoided even if the shape requires difficult-to-fill thin sections. This creates the problem of air entrapment, because when the mold is filled quickly there is little time for the air to escape. This problem is minimized by including vents along the parting lines, however, even in a highly refined process there will still be some porosity in the center of the casting.
Most die casters perform other secondary operations to produce features not readily castable, such as tapping a hole, polishing, plating, buffing, or painting.
Heated-manifold direct-injection die casting, also known as direct-injection die casting or runnerless die casting, is a zinc die casting process where molten zinc is forced through a heated manifold and then through heated mini-nozzles, which lead into the molding cavity. This process has the advantages of lower cost per part, through the reduction
of scrap (by the elimination of sprues, gates and runners) and energy conservation, and better surface quality through slower cooling cycles.
The dies used in die casting are usually made out of hardened tool steels because cast iron cannot withstand the high pressures involved. Due to this the dies are very expensive, resulting in a high startup cost. Dies may contain only one mold cavity or multiple cavities of the same or different parts. There must be at least two dies to allow for separation and ejection of the finished workpiece, however it’s not uncommon for there to be more sections that open and close in different directions. Dies also often contain water-cooling passages, retractable cores, ejector pins, and vents along the parting lines. These vents are usually wide and thin (approximately 0.13 mm or 0.005 in) so that when the molten metal starts filling them the metal quickly solidifies and minimizes scrap. No risers are used because the high pressure ensures a continuous feed of metal from the gate. Recently, there's been a trend to incorporate larger gates in the die and to use lower injection pressures to fill the mold, and then increase the pressure after its filled.
In addition to the dies there may be cores involved to cast features such as undercuts. Sand cores cannot be used because they disintegrate from the high pressures involved with die casting, therefore metal cores are used. If a retractable core is used then provisions must be made for it to be removed either in a straight line or circular arc. Moreover, these cores must have very little clearance between the die and the core to prevent the molten metal from escaping. Loose cores may also be used to cast more intricate features (such as threaded holes). These loose cores are inserted into the die by hand before each cycle and
Then ejected with the part at the end of the cycle. The core then must be removed by hand. Loose cores are more expensive due to the extra labor and time involved.
A die's life is most prominently limited by wear or erosion, which is is strongly dependent on the temperature of the molten metal. Aluminum alloy die usually have a life of 100,000 cycles, if the die is properly maintained. Molds for die casting zinc last approximately 10 times longer than aluminium die casting mold due to the lower temperature of the zinc. Dies for zinc are often made of H13 and only hardened to 29-34 RHC. Cores are either made of H13 or 440B, so that the wearing parts can be selectively nitrided for hardness, leaving the exposed part soft to resist heat checking. Molds for die casting brass are the shortest-lived of all.