The three pillars of service excellence in high pressure die casting

Anyone in the high pressure die casting industry today will agree—there is enormous demand to decrease costs and optimize productivity.  At voestalpine High Performance Metals, we’ve long since recognized this. And this is why we work closely with our customers to provide them with the full die solution.  Our approach: “The right steel supported by the right service!” is what keeps our customers one step ahead.

But what is the right steel and the right service, and how can your business benefit from this approach?

Read on to discover how our full die solution can help optimize your productivity to meet the trends and demands of the die casting industry.

WHAT ARE THE TRENDS IN THE HIGH PRESSURE DIE CASTING INDUSTRY?

The high pressure die casting industry is undergoing a significant transformation driven by the need to decrease costs and increase efficiency. This demand to optimize productivity presents both challenges and opportunities for foundries and other businesses in the supply chain. Understanding the trends and technical demands is vitally important for any related business to succeed. So, what are the trends and demands?

From a foundry’s perspective, the trends towards optimizing productivity influence the following processes:

• Overall equipment efficiency
• Part Quality (minimum scrap rate)
• Machine Utilization (less downtime)
• Reduction of rework & maintenance costs
• Digitalization / monitoring of tool performance
• Sustainability and energy efficiency (CO₂ footprint)

The technical demands that need to be addressed when optimizing these processes include:

• Die temperature management (temperature distribution, critical cooling areas, etc.)
• The use of new aluminum alloys
• New design requirements of the casted parts
• Complexity and size of the parts produced (thickness, etc.)
• Larger critical mold dimension (heat treatment, etc.)
• New technologies in casting, cooling, and spraying
• Surface requirements of parts produced (as casted)

As you may know, these trends and demands present a complex production challenge. And this is where voestalpine High Performance Metals, with our full die solution can make all the difference to your business.

HOW TO OPTIMIZE PRODUCTIVITY

At voestalpine High Performance Metals, our full die solution encompasses all aspects of die casting optimization, which is firmly founded on the choice of the right material and supported by the three pillars of service excellence:

1. Heat Treatment
2. PVD Coating
3. Engineered Products

THE RIGHT MATERIAL

Our three pillars of service excellence are based upon first determining the right material. We’ve spent centuries developing the material grades to overcome the challenges facing the die casting industry. The result is a range of high pressure die casting materials with superior mechanical properties like high temperature wear resistance, toughness, temper back resistance and many more.

Choosing the wrong material grade for die casting can be a costly mistake. This why we help our customers arrive at the right solution based upon their application, environment, and other unique requirements.

You can find out more about choosing the best material grade for your die casting application by reading our article here.

THE THREE PILLARS OF SERVICE EXCELLENCE

The three pillars of service excellence provide our customers with the special value-added services they need to optimize their production.

PILLAR 1: HEAT TREATMENT

Heat treatment is an essential process to achieve the right balance of material strength, wear resistance, and toughness/ductility for the tool steel. When it comes to the  current trend of producing significantly larger die dimensions, heat treatment can be the real game changer. As part of our full die solution, we offer tailored heat treatment for our hot work steels, with results that far exceed the industry standards!

Our 58 heat treatment locations around the globe, offer following main services to the tooling industry:

• Vacuum Hardening: achieves the right balance of required material properties.
• Gas and Plasma Nitriding for premium required surface sliding properties, which also provides additional abrasive wear resistance.
• Sub-Zero treatment: Sometimes this special treatment is needed to achieve dedicated material properties.

We also offer a suite of additional services, such as oxidizing and our ABP (Advanced Benefit Process) based on shot peening technology.

Our engineers and metallurgist work closely with our customers to ensure the heat treatment process is the ideal solution for their products.

HEAT TREATMENT CASE STUDY

One of our premium European customers in the automotive industry recently asked us to help them come up with a solution to increase the tool life of their complex structural aluminum part to produce a die cast for a passenger vehicle. Together, we came up with a tailor-made solution that increased their tool performance by 123%!

Standard Heat Treatment	Tailored voestalpine Heat Treatment
1.2343 ESR 43-45 HRC	1.2343 ESR 44-46
Failure reason: heat checking, cross cracks	Working hardness: 44-46 HRC
Tool life: 100%	Tool Performance: 123%

By improving their tool performance, they were able to increase their overall equipment efficiency, increase machine utilization (less downtime), reduce scrap rate as well as rework and maintenance costs. Ultimately, this improved their bottom line.

You can find out more about our heat treatment services by visiting our page here.

PILLAR 2: PVD COATING

You’ll be surprised by just how much knowledge and experience our experts at voestapline eifeler Coating have when it comes to optimizing the surface of a tool. Since 1983 we have not only been coating surfaces, but also setting new standards in research and development. Today, eifeler technology is synonymous with high-tech and premium products that cover the entire value chain—from polishing to PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) coating. We mainly use our Duplex technology, which is based on a plasma nitriding AND PVD coating in one thermal cycle.

Especially for the HPDC industry, we have developed our Duplex TIGRAL Coating with outstanding performance.

PVD COATING CASE STUDY

Another customer, this time in the motorcycle industry, recently approached us to help them increase the tool performance of their die cast for a motorcycle grab handle. Our tailor-made solution increased their tool performance by 220%!

Standard Tool Characteristics	Tailored voestalpine Solution
1.2344 (AISI H13) with standard PVD	voestalpine  premium metiral 1.2344+ Duplex Tigral coating
Working hardness: 44-46 HRC	Working hardness: 44-46 HRC
Failure reason: Heat checking
Tool performance: 75.000 parts	Tool performance: 165.000 parts

The superior tool performance resulted in less maintenance effort, less downtime, and a significantly longer tool life!

You can find out more about our PVD and CVD Coating Services by visiting our page here.

PILLAR 3: ENGINEERED PRODUCTS

Produced by additive manufacturing (AM) as well as conventional manufacturing, our wide range of Engineered Products provide our customers with tailored solutions to best fit their needs.

AM is one of the most advantageous production methods for parts with complex shapes and critical temperature balance. Even with such complexity, such parts require conformal cooling. We print them with our premium AM grades and using our deep knowledge of additive manufacturing.

Compared to conventional manufacturing, the AM method frequently allows for shorter cycle times and more homogeneous temperature distribution.

ENGINEERED PRODUCTS CASE STUDY

One of our European OEM customers in the automotive industry approached us to help them improve their production. Together we analyzed their existing processes and identified opportunities to reduce both maintenance effort and setup and downtime. We determined that their existing core pins were failing due to soldering / bending. So, we came up with tailored solution using voestalpine Engineered Products Core Pins.

The voestalpine Engineered Products Core Pin achieved a lifetime increase of an impressive 200%! As a result, our customer significantly improved their profitability—decreasing maintenance (cleaning) effort as well as setup and downtime, and ultimately increasing their bottom line.

You can find out more about our Engineered Products by visiting our page here.

ISN’T IT TIME YOU OPTIMZED YOUR PRODUCTIVITY?

By taking advantage of our full die solution with its three pillars of service of excellence, our customers have been able to reduce their costs and optimize their productivity. The case studies that we have presented here are a mere fraction of the success stories that we continue to celebrate with our customers. And of course, we work with our customers through the entire design and production process, ensuring superior tool performance. We’re committed to building lasting partnerships that not only address the trends and demands of the high pressure die casting industry, but also shape it’s very future.

If you’d also like to keep one step ahead and optimize your productivity, there has never been a better time to reach out to us. We look forward to helping you!

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