Technological Advancement on Die Cast Tooling


Die cast tooling are the dies and the molds used for die casting. These die cast tools many forms namely Trim Dies used for die cast parts, Die Cast Family Mold Tooling, Complete Class “A” Die Cast Mold Tooling or Die Tooling, Unit Die Tooling, Prototype Die Cast Tooling Inserts and Die Cast Tooling Inserts.

I would be focusing this article on the latter form, the die cast tooling inserts since among all the die cast tooling, these are the least expensive. These actually are just enough steel to create cavities plus extra steel to put up with the fluctuations of the temperature of molten metal injecting under force. To extend the tooling life, the inserts should be heat treated to reach their proper hardness, not too hard and not too soft. Making it too soft will cause it to easily get damaged or easily wear from erosion and making it too hard, on the other hand could result to the steel cracking due to high temperature. Toolmakers who do not use enough steel in the inserts may reduce its potential life.

The die casting tooling inserts need to be supported by a type of holder so that metal could be injected into it and also to provide a sort of a path for the metal to pass and go in while the gases escape. These gases should be removed because it can produce porosity. This holder of inserts are called unit die, family die or mold base.

Multi-Slide Die Cast Tooling

Our proprietary multi-slide technology was originally invented in 1936. Since then, we have made continuous improvements to our tools and machines to offer the most advanced die casting process. Multi-slide tooling is designed to use four (or more) perpendicular slides in the tool allowing us to create more complex and accurate castings. Multi-slide die casting offers a number of unique advantages, including:



  • Net shape first time, eliminating secondary operations like assembly and machining
  • Complex geometry and tight tolerances at high speed for world-class productivity and lower total costs
  • Minimum part-to-part variation compared to standard multi-cavity dies
  • More compact tools that are less prone to parting-line variation and its negative effect on the finished part’s dimensional tolerances

Conventional Die Cast Tooling

Conventional die cast tooling comes in single cavities (one part per cycle) or multiple cavities (more than one part per cycle). Our conventional tooling process is designed with only two slides rather than four and it provides customers with efficiency in production and lower costs. When you choose the right tool you receive:

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  • Quality built dies which efficiently cope with high volume production
  • Attention to the design of the dies, putting in as many of the part’s features as needed to avoid secondary operations. Our goal is always net shape first time
  • Careful planning to eliminate machining and reduce costs
  • Predictive wear analysis to promote the longevity of our dies, our tool designers predict what part of the die may wear out and insert this as a separate piece of steel
  • Carefully planned water and cooling lines ensure efficient production

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