Die Casting

Die casting is a process for production of metal alloy parts. Die casting is usually done with metals with low melting temperatures, such as aluminum alloy, zinc alloy, and brass. In die casting molten alloy is injected into a steel mold under high pressure to form the metal parts. Finishing processes such as polishing, anodizing, and powder coating may be applied afterwards to improve surface appearance.

Relative to many other casting methods, such as sand casting, die casting forms cleaner, higher tolerance parts that require less post machining and have lower porosity. However, die casting can only be used with metals with a relatively low melting point.

Design Guidelines

When designing your die cast part abide by the following guidelines where possible:

• Keep wall thickness uniform throughout the part.
• Use a wall thickness not too thick or too thin for the kind of metal alloy used. Consider the shrink factor of the material and cooling time.
• Use rounded corners instead of sharp corners. Sharp acute angle corners may not fill completely.
• Add plenty of draft to surfaces parallel to the direction of part ejection. This will ease part ejection.
• Limit the use of undercuts to reduce the required number of slides in the mold.
• Avoid long, thin holes. Increase hole ID or decrease hole length.