Foundries use aluminum alloys in the production of durable aluminum components including everything from automobile parts to soft drink cans. Aluminum is a malleable metal and gives certain economies of scale to the die casters in Mexico and foundries all over the world. Some of the main production methods of aluminum parts are alternative forming, machining, and rolling.
Aluminum ingots are melted in a furnace at temperatures of more than 1000 Degree Fahrenheit in high-pressure die casting. Then, the molten metal is put to hydraulic pressure until the metal solidifies; the process is repeated many times over until aluminum molds are brought down to a thickness of 4 to 6 millimeters or even as low as 0.05 millimeters.
Over the years, shot sleeves, plunger parts have been used to part the mold into dual halves and even robots are involved in pouring molten metal into the mold cavity. Since aluminum can be shaped into geometrical shapes with thin-wall thickness, the foundries have been able to successfully meet the needs of the canning segment. The rolled aluminum is being used within several alloys needing a certain degree of flatness and thereby suits distinct applications like vessels and carriages to name two.
On the other hand, machining is used to shape the recycled aluminum. In machining, aluminum chips are cut into parts with precise dimensions and can provide a surface finish which falls under ideal pressure tolerances of the end product.
Hot forming gives more intricate shapes on recycled aluminum which can be forged using low-pressure but it requires lots of energy to complete the final component. However, there is also cold forming, which needs only room temperature to forge the metal. Cold forming can help in ideally controlling the surface finish and help in achieving the component in high speed.
Some of the components can be cold formed at a rate of knots, while others are first cold formed and then machined in a manufacturing facility. Aluminum manufacturers across the world feel it is essential for product engineers as well as designers to think cold forming as an individual step, while at the same time, collaborate cold forming with other manufacturing techniques used in high-pressure die casting for meeting economies of scale.