The casting industry is an essential component in the American industrial machine. There’s no denying the importance of casting to manufacturing, as an extensive variety of finished manufactured parts involve one or more die cast products. Casting is one of the most effective means by which metal products with complex profiles can be created. Just of few of the many possible die casting products include RF housings, bearing housings, compressor bearing caps, lock hardware and even linear actuators.

The casting process makes the production of complex metal products possible. This is achieved by taking a shot of molten, usually non-ferrous metal such as aluminum, tin, magnesium or zinc, among other materials, and forcing it into a specially-designed die cavity. The die is designed to give the molten metal shape as it is forced around its contours. The molten metal is forced into the die by the pressure created by a piston. Once the metal has taken shape, it solidifies as the metal cools. Once adequately hardened, the metal is ejected from the die and sent for secondary processes such as deflashing, buffing, grinding and painting.

Metal casting is a popular process because it is highly effective, produces parts with high consistency and can be used to create any variety of parts. The limit to the number of possible die cast parts is equal to the limits of engineers’ imaginations; it’s simply a matter of designing a die that can be used to create die cast parts. The main advantages to die casting are the process’s high output, the high dimensional accuracy of die cast products, the reduced need for secondary finishing processes compared to other metal forming processes and the high tensile strength of castings. Initial investment in casting tools can be very expensive, but large enough product runs over a long enough period of time can more than recover these costs.