Automotive Die Casting Services On Demand

With the first industry we served being the high-performance aftermarket automotive market. We understand what it takes to remain competitive in the automotive parts manufacturing industry.Automotive Die Casting parts not only need to conform to stringent engineering standards, but parts must also adhere to strict aesthetic standards.Our automotive experts will deliver quality components on time by utilizing our die casting capabilities, stocking programs and JIT services. You can count on Be-cu.com to build and maintain a long-term partnership by always offering you, our customer, Best Price, Best Value, and World Class Customer Service second to none. Whether Drivetrain, Fuel, Brake, Suspension, Electronics or HVAC, Be-cu.com will drive the initiatives needed to add Value to your business and improve your Competitive Advantage.

Aluminum Die Casting For Automotive

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Aluminum parts are found in the automobile’s frame and body, engine, wheels, lamps, air conditioning and electrical wiring systems, and more. Aluminum weighs less than steel, it absorbs energy, and it is malleable, durable and recyclable. These characteristics offer a range of benefits.

Lightweight aluminum enables auto manufacturers to build vehicles that accelerate, brake and handle better. Lighter-weight parts also mean that aluminum cars are more fuel-efficient than those with a preponderance of steel components.

When automotive precision aluminum die casting parts are needed, Be-cu.com is your go-to manufacturer.Be-cu.com will supply you with the highest level of accuracy and service when it comes to automotive aluminum die casting. Be-cu.com has 30+ years of experience with aluminum die casting operations and has supplied several leading industries with precision parts, including the auto industry. See why Be-cu has been a leading automotive die casting shop for over a decade. Let us exceed your expectations. Contact us or email us at [email protected] and start an automotive project today.

Automotive Die Casting Process And Post-Processing

Most of the structural parts for automobiles are made of iron or steel and produced by the corresponding manufacturing process. According to the requirements of automotive lightweighting, such casting materials are being transformed into light alloys. Die-casting process has high productivity, casting precision and a series of advantages, with die casting process production of structural parts can not only shorten the production cycle, but also to achieve precision near net forming, eliminating a large number of machining sequence, saving costs. Therefore, die-casting method is the production of aluminum, magnesium alloy automotive structural parts of a very competitive process. Some European die-casting manufacturers have successfully die-cast a variety of structural parts, and achieved considerable economic benefits, become a new economic growth point for the die-casting industry

Die Castings Production

The Pintejin Group has a foundry subsidiary that develops and produces large, complex castings, while outsourcing the remaining processes to “aftercare” companies in order to reduce costs. This approach to production has refined the division of labour in the market and increased specialisation and automation in the production of automotive components, but it has also placed greater demands on logistics, information flow and the organisation and co-ordination of production, which has led Pintejin Group to innovate and apply management techniques.

Vacuum Die Casting For Automotive Parts

Pores in die castings can cause local stress concentration and become a source of cracks, resulting in reduced strength and fatigue resistance of the casting, vacuum die casting is one of the effective methods to reduce the problem of pores. Vacuum die casting technology is used to extract the gas from the pressure chamber and cavity within the die casting mould, so that the molten metal fills the cavity under relative vacuum, which can significantly reduce dissolved gas and porosity within the casting and improve the density of the internal organisation of the casting. The die casting can be heat treated, thus improving the overall mechanical properties

Automotive Die Casting Mold Making

Due to the complex shape, thin wall and fast cooling speed of the parts, large stress will be generated in the die casting process, and the stress will lead to deformation. In order to ensure the ex factory dimensions of the castings, the reverse deformation has been considered in the mold design stage. At the same time, the correct mold cooling design has a decisive impact on the solidification process.

Automation Die Casting For Automotive Parts

In the process of die casting, important data such as pouring temperature, mold temperature, low/high pressure injection velocity, filling time, pressure maintaining pressure and vacuum degree are recorded and monitored in real time to strictly monitor product quality. All qualified blanks are engraved with two-dimensional code by laser marking machine to realize information and traceability management for subsequent processing.

Packaging And Transportation

The castings with the sprue system and flying edges removed are made for factory quality inspection, and those with complete structure, qualified contour dimensions and no other casting defects are boxed and sent to the outsourcing machine processing enterprises. For the end user of the product, the plant designs a special frame for the product according to its shape and the dimensions of the wagon. The parts are fixed in the frame using a clamping mechanism to prevent mutual contact and knocking, ensuring the economy and safety of the blank during transport. The wagons used to transport the parts are standard side curtain box wagons, which are used in conjunction with loading and unloading platforms. The side curtains of the wagons are extremely easy to remove, both sides and the rear side can be unloaded, the body can be separated from the front end and the driver does not have to wait for loading and unloading time; all this increases the safety and efficiency of transport.

Mobilization Inspection

The box truck enters the factory and uses a forklift to unload the frame full of blank parts to the loading point cache area of the production line, where workers check the appearance against the delivery note and entry inspection form for obvious casting defects and for damage and contamination during transport.

Heat Treatment

In order to improve the mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, dimensional stability, cutting and machining properties and welding properties of the castings, heat treatment of the die casting blank parts is required. Generally speaking, ordinary die castings cannot be treated at high temperatures due to the high gas content. This is because the gas in the casting expands and gathers under high temperature heat treatment, causing the surface of the casting to bulge, while seriously reducing the elongation of the casting. Due to the high vacuum die casting, the gas content in the casting can be less than 15ml/100g, or even less than 10ml/100g, allowing the casting to be heat treated to T7, which can significantly improve the strength and toughness of the casting at the same time. 

Frames filled with blank parts are conveyed on a roller conveyor to the heat treatment loading station, where workers remove the parts from the frames and place them on heat treatment trays, with three pieces on each tray. Each heat treatment pallet has a ceramic 2D code and the data is automatically uploaded to the ERP system when the pallet passes through the scanner.

• Solid solution treatment : T7 heat treatment (solid solution treatment plus stabilisation treatment) is carried out, with the solid solution temperature and time strictly in accordance with the process requirements, so that the soluble phase within the alloy is fully dissolved. After the solid solution treatment the microstructure changes, the eutectic silicon is fused, granulated and spheroidised and will be uniformly distributed on the α-Al solid solution. The Mg-rich phase is also fully dissolved in the α-Al solid solution. The parts are easily deformed during the heat treatment process due to the very fast cooling rate during the die-casting process, coupled with the stress concentration caused by unbalanced solidification, and if the deformation is not well controlled, subsequent machining and assembly cannot be achieved. The heat treatment pallet is an important tooling for the heat treatment process. A reasonable design can greatly reduce the deformation of the part during the heat treatment process and create favourable conditions for the subsequent orthopaedic process. The design and modification of pallets is a dynamic process that is constantly optimised and tested by production practice and software simulation.
• Air cooling : This continuous pass-through heat treatment furnace is designed in a multi-layer design in order to save space, with the first layer for solution treatment and the second, third and fourth layers for ageing treatment. The transfer of workpieces and pallets is done by means of a hoist with a temperature control accuracy of 3°C. At the end of the holding time, the pallets and parts enter the air-cooling station and simultaneously air-cool the four pallets. The air-cooling time and cooling rate are executed according to the process parameters. After processing, the parts are cooled to room temperature, the parts are scanned with a QR code and the data is entered into the heat treatment furnace database and ERP system

Air Bubble Inspection And Repair

After the solid solution treatment, the parts are transported to the bubble inspection station to check whether the parts have bubbles, bubble size diameter, bubble group size, bubble interval distance and crack size, to determine the unqualified products according to the testing standard, and the small bubbles on the qualified products can be eliminated by gently tapping with a hammer. After the bubble inspection and repair process, sweep the QR code and upload the data to the ERP system.

Correction And Detection

The deformation of the part occurs mainly during the air-cooled quenching process, with minimal deformation during the subsequent artificial ageing process. The aluminium part was quenched and instead of hardening before the crystals were formed, the material became softer and more plastic than before. 

Due to the complex shape and size of this product, it is necessary to control the form accuracy of 27 points, which is very difficult to calibrate manually and can seriously affect the quality and efficiency of production. The actual deviation of each monitoring point is displayed on the screen in the form of a graph, making it easy for the operator to keep abreast of the straightening situation, occasionally with manual straightening, so that the requirements of quality and efficiency are met. The product is available in two varieties, left and right, so two straightening machines are arranged to handle the left and right pieces respectively. Each machine has a quality-checked standard sample, and for every 25 products straightened, the machine is re-calibrated with the standard parts. The automatically corrected ones are marked on the product with a green marker, scanned with a 2D code and placed in the heat treatment stand, where a conveyor roller conveyor returns the parts and heat treatment pallets to the heat treatment furnace for manual ageing treatment.

Stabilization Treatment

After quenching, the part tissue produces a supersaturated solid solution, the metal structure is in an unstable structure, as this product has high requirements for dimensional stability, it must be able to maintain the shape and dimensional changes within the specified range under the conditions of long-term use, so it must be stabilised and precipitated in the form of Mg2Si strengthening phase after complete artificial ageing to obtain high toughness and high strength parts. The manual ageing treatment is carried out at the temperature and time determined by the process and is finished by hand with a permanent mark on the workpiece using a marker and marked with a green marker. After heat treatment the parts are sampled for mechanical properties, using a waterjet to take samples at specified locations on the part, including: yield strength, tensile strength, Brinell hardness and riveting properties. Yield strength requirements Rp0.2 ≥ 110MPa, tensile strength Rm ≥ 170MPa, elongation A ≥ 10%. After complete artificial ageing, so that the strengthening term precipitates and improves the strength. The time interval with subsequent machining must not exceed 72 hours.

Automatic Grinding

All mating surfaces, contact surfaces and mounting parts need to be smooth and burr-free, the grinding process generates a lot of dust and noise, the environment is harsh and the work intensity is high, in the case of larger production, automatic grinding by robot, completely closed grinding compartment to isolate the dust and noise, the dust removal system ensures 100% collection of air dust in the compartment, the collected dust is automatically added with water to form a paste and transported to the cleaning trolley. The collected dust is automatically transported to the cleaning trolley with water to form a paste. 

The operator places the left and right workpieces onto two conveyor belts and transports them into the automatic grinding compartment positioning position, where the robot scans the QR code of the workpieces and grabs the castings for automatic grinding according to the process route. 

The grinding compartment is equipped with 6 ABB robots and the polished workpieces are placed on the belt conveyor and transported to the machining area.

CNC Machining Automotive Parts

The robots pick up the workpieces from the belt conveyor and place them on the machining centre. In order to match the capacity of 90 seconds per piece, a total of four 5-axis high-speed machining centres are equipped. The workpieces can be machined in one clamping for all machined surfaces, deep holes and tapping, and a total of 38 through holes, blind holes and threaded holes of 5.5mm to 20mm in diameter are machined. The machining centre was selected from the Chiron Mill 2000 vertical 5-axis milling machine. The machine was chosen mainly for its efficiency, the accuracy of the processed product and the reliability of the machine.

Cleaning Of Automotive Die Castings

The cleaning process is also automated. The robot places the machined parts on the conveyor roller supports and runs them automatically to the cleaning chamber. The machined parts are cleaned with a cleaning solution at 50°C with a pH value of 7 to 11 at a pressure of 3 to 4 bar, then blown dry with heated compressed air, picked up by the robot and placed in the assembly station.

Assembling Of Automotive Die Castings

Before assembly, a manual inspection station shall be set to spot check the cleaned products and detect the errors and surface cleanliness of machined surfaces, deep holes and threads. Fully automatic installation is adopted, which is composed of three manipulators and an automatic feeding system. The manipulator is equipped with automatic detection equipment. If nonconforming products are found, they will be repaired manually.

The Advantage Of Automotive Die Casting

1. Good Product Quality: castings have high dimensional accuracy, generally equivalent to 6~7, or even up to 4; good surface finish, generally equivalent to 5~8; strength and hardness are higher, and the strength is generally 25 higher than sand casting ~30%, but the elongation is reduced by about 70%; the size is stable, and the interchangeability is good; it can die-cast automotive thin-walled complex castings. For example, the minimum wall thickness of current zinc alloy die-cast aluminum parts can reach 0.3mm; automotive castings can reach 0.5mm; the minimum casting aperture is 0.7mm; and the minimum pitch is 0.75mm.
2. High Production Efficiency: high machine productivity. For example, the 3-type horizontal cold-air die-casting machine in the BE-CU die-casting workshop can die-cast 600-700 times in eight hours on average, and the small hot-chamber die-cast machine can die-cast on average every eight hours. 3000~7000 times; long life of die-cast mold, one pair of die-cast mold, die-cast clock alloy, life can reach hundreds of thousands of times, even millions of times; easy to achieve mechanization and automation.
3. Excellent Economic Effect: due to the precise size of automotive die casting parts, the surface is smooth and clean. Generally, it is not used for mechanical fabrication but directly used, or the volume fabrication is small, so it not only improves the utilization rate of metal, but also reduces a large number of fabrication equipment and man-hours; the price of castings is cheap; combination die-cast aluminum can be used with other metal or non-metal materials . It saves not only assembly man-hours but also metal.

Looking for reliable, quick-turn automotive die casting services suppliers and CNC Machined product manufacturers? With 20+ of advanced die casting machines, our unparalleled design and production capacity capabilities guarantee premier OEM automotive die casting parts to worldwide customers. At BE-CU – China Top Die Casting Supplier, you can find comprehensive certified die casting process (thin wall automotive die casting, cold chamber automotive die casting, hot chamber automotive die casting,automotive die casting mold making) for volume production of end-use components or full item.

The Development Of Automotive Die Casting

With the development of automobile lightweighting, aluminium alloy die-casting structural parts have been highly valued and rapidly developed by the automobile industry at home and abroad. Automotive structural parts are the load-bearing and force-bearing parts in automobiles, which are closely related to the safety of automobiles.

The structural parts are often connected with other components to form a deformation-resistant high-strength framework. These structural members are usually characterised by large dimensions, thin walls and complex structures. Because of the need to ensure the reliable safety of the vehicle during driving, the mechanical properties of the structural members of the vehicle are also required to a high degree.

The die-casting process is very important for the production of qualified automotive structural parts, and the correct selection of the die-shot pattern and die-shot parameters is beneficial for the reduction of defects in die castings. A considerable part of the gas in the die casting comes from the pre-filling stage of the metal fluid in the pressure chamber, so due attention should be paid to optimising the injection pattern in the slow injection stage to avoid the metal fluid being involved in the gas in the chamber. The correct choice of release agent and lubricant should be made to optimise the spraying process.

The die casting machine should have a stable performance, a flexible programming mode and a real-time control system to ensure that the entire die-casting process is reasonable and that the deviation of the process parameters is minimal. The mould temperature should be precisely controlled, with cooling water distributors to monitor the flow and temperature of each cooling circuit to form the required temperature distribution. A good mould design, a proper die-casting process and an ideal filling pattern will ensure excellent casting quality and reduce the dependence on vacuum. In addition, extrusion pins can be used in critical or thick-walled areas to reduce shrinkage or increase density. The use of metal liquid front sensors, which know exactly the flow of the metal liquid, allows the filling pattern to be optimised.