The Importance of Zinc Die Casting Manufacturers in the Automotive Industry


Zinc die casting manufacturers are highly popular for making parts in building and industrial fields, but its most common application is in automotive industry. In fact, cars have different parts that can be crafted through die casting, so much so that the modern process of die casting originally started for automotive industry.

Die casting is a very versatile and cost effective process for components requiring high yearly volumes and complex geometries. Typically, the zinc die casting process is considered when yearly volumes reach at least 15,000 parts.  Lesser volumes may require other zinc casting processes such as sand casting or graphite permanent molding.  Die casting is a net-shape process, and cost savings can be achieved by eliminating secondary machining and assembly operations required by other processes.   Often, when converting components to zinc die castings, the assembly can be redesigned to allow the consolidation of multiple parts to one net shape die cast component.

There are two processes done by Zinc diecasting manufacturers:  Hot Chamber and Cold Chamber. 

The Hot Chamber process is used for alloys with low melting temperatures and a low attack rate on steel components.  This process is used for most of the zinc die casting alloys, and is more economical.  In this process, the metal pump (gooseneck) is immersed in the molten zinc alloy (thus the name "hot chamber"), pumping metal directly from the furnace to the die.  Advantages include faster cycle times, smaller runner systems (and resulting air in the process) and lower processing costs compared to the cold chamber process.

One the other hand, cold chamber zinc die casting process there is often no need of further machining after casting: not only its accuracy is up to 99.8%, but casted products also can be used raw, since they have a pleasant finish. Zinc die casting manufacturers use is almost 28% in automotive industry, followed by building and hardware sectors.

Zinc has become one of the most important metals in automotive parts industry, especially for products like door lock housing, pawls, retractor gears and pulleys in seat belt system, but also for the camshaft and sensor components. By using this metal and its alloys, it is possible to reach a strength, ductility and malleability that will not be possible with other materials.

Moreover, zinc can be the right choice to obtain high quality aesthetic components, with  strict tolerances impossible to achieve with other materials, and to obtain embossing and grooves for mechanical or gear components.

As said before, automotive industry is the most common application of die casting: by using zinc and its alloys is possible to produce components capable of reaching high aesthetic quality , with strict and narrow tolerances for shapes morphology. Zinc alloy is also used for plating purposes because of its many benefits, such as enhancing the already impressive anti-corrosion zinc properties.

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