Vacuum assisted die casting is the latest technology that made considerable changes in the die casting industry. The demand for die casting is also high nowadays, especially in the automotive industry. This has resulted in the adoption of newer techniques in die casting with the sole objective of ensuring quality in the components as well as for enhancing the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the process.
Industries, especially for the automotive sector, have begun to demand better products that are much durable along with reductions in weight and other dimensions. This has facilitated die casters to look for new additions in the already used techniques of die casting.
Vacuum Assisted Casting
Conventional die cast methods suffer from porosity in the finished product. The alloys, when forced into the cavity at high pressures, will result in the air to get trapped in between. This will result in porosity to occur in the casting, which can affect the mechanical properties of the component. This can result in low quality of the component that can result in dissatisfaction of the clients.
Vacuum assisted casting avoids many of these defects by drawing a vacuum between the shot sleeve and mold cavity. A vacuum system maintains this vacuum in the cavity until the completion of the injection process. This will result in the mold to become totally evacuated of any air. By maintaining the vacuum inside the mold cavity, the alloys will flow well into the recesses of the mold, thereby allowing the molten metal to merge freely without the formation of any shuts.
Benefits of Vacuum Assisted Casting
Vacuum assisted die casting, when employed for a product, will result in improvements to the quality and a reduction in scrap. Additionally, it has numerous benefits in the die casting process such as,
- The chances of porosity are fully removed
- Improvements in the surface quality
- Increase in the density of the product and strength
- Improvements in the mechanical, static and dynamic properties
- Tool and mold life are significantly enhanced
Vacuum casting is employed by most of the die casters today considering its many benefits. Due to the high costs involved in the rejection of products citing low quality, it can influence all the stages of the production process, and most importantly, the time. In fact, porosity, which is one of the main defects in die casting, can only be removed completely by using vacuum assisted die casting process.