HIGH PRESSURE MOULD DESIGN AND STRENGTH CALCULATION

by Grkem ZELK

June, 2004 ZMR

ENJEKSIYON KALIP TASARIMI VE MUKAVAMET HESAPLARI

Grkem ZELK

Haziran, 2004 ZMR

ZET Bu almada, yksek basnl enjeksiyon tezgahlarnda alminyum alam kullanlarak dkm yapan bir kalp tasarlanmtr. ncelikle sektr hakknda genel bilgi verilmitir. Tasarma etki eden faktrler ayrntl olarak incelenmitir. Tasarm hzlandracak ve kolaylatracak baz pratik bilgiler verilmi ve bu bilgilerin doruluu kontrol edilmitir. Yksek basnl tezgahlarda dkm yapan kalplardan salam ve kaliteli para elde etmek iin en nemli etkenlerden biri olan yolluk tasarm ayrntl olarak incelenmitir. Anahtar kelimeler: Kalp, Yolluk, Kovan, Kalp gz, Yksek basnl dkm

ABSTRACT In this study, a mould which casts with aluminium alloy in high pressure die casting machine is designed. Firstly, a general information about the aluminum moulding is given. Factors that affect design are examined in details. Information to make the designing period quick and simple is given and is validated. Design of runner system which is the most important factor to make effective and quality parts from the moulds that cast in high pressure die casting machines is examined in details. Key words: Mould, Runner, Shot-sleeve, Cavity, High pressure die casting

1. Introduction The transformation of metals in manufacturing articles by means of melting and casting is an ancient art; the relative technology has through time seen a number of different methodologies: sand casting, gravity shell casting, pressure die casting. Die- casting is a relatively young technique but it has had a very rapid evolution. The evolution of die casting has been determined by the model of development of our society , revolving around the production of consumable goods in long and extremely long production runs and has found applications in all fields of manufactured products. The machinery necessary for the production of die cast pieces is specific to the process . 2. Aluminium History Aluminium was discovered in the laboratory at the beginning of the 19th century and was technology extracted for the first time in the second half of the 19th century. Since the electrolytic refining process, which is still in use today, was introduced about 100 years ago. 1808 Sir Humphry Davy (Britain) established the existence of aluminium and named it. 1821 P. Berthier (France) discovers a hard, reddish, clay-like material containing 52 per cent aluminium oxide near the village of Les Baux in southern France. He called it bauxite, the most common ore of aluminium. 1825 Hans Christian Oersted (Denmark) produces minute quantities of aluminium metal by using dilute potassium amalgam to react with anhydrous aluminium chloride, and distilling the resulting mercury away to leave a residue of slightly impure aluminium. 1827 Friedrich Whler (Germany) describes a process for producing aluminium as a powder by reacting potassium with anhydrous aluminium chloride.

1845 Whler establishes the specific gravity (density) of aluminium, and one of its unique properties - lightness. 1854 Henri Sainte-Claire Deville (France) improves Whler's method to create the first commercial process. The metal's price, initially higher than that of gold and platinum, drops by 90% over the following 10 years. The price is still high enough to inhibit its widespread adoption by industry. 1855 A bar of aluminium, the new precious metal, is exhibited at the Paris Exhibition. 1885 Hamilton Y. Cassner (USA) improves on Deville's process. Annual output 15 tonnes 1886 Two unknown young scientists, Paul Louis Toussaint Hroult (France) and Charles Martin Hall (USA), working separately and unaware of each other's work, simultaneously invent a new electrolytic process, the Hall-Hroult process, which is the basis for all aluminium production today. They discovered that if they dissolved aluminium oxide (alumina) in a bath of molten cryolite and passed a powerful electric current through it, then molten aluminium would be deposited at the bottom of the bath. 1888 The first aluminium companies founded in France, Switzerland and the USA 1889 Karl Josef Bayer (Austria), son of the founder of the Bayer chemical company, invented the Bayer Process for the large scale production of alumina from bauxite. 1900 Annual output 8 thousand tonnes. 1913 Annual output 65 thousand tonnes. 1920 Annual output 128 thousand tonnes. 1938 Annual output 537 thousand tonnes. 1946 Annual output 681 thousand tonnes. 1999 Annual output 24 million tonnes. Aluminium is the most common metal in the crust of the earth. The basic material for the production of aluminium is bauxite, an anhydrous mineral, which consists

mainly of alumina (Al2O3), sand (SiO2), iron oxide (Fe2O3) and titanium oxide (TiO2). The alumina has to be separated from this mineral. This can be accomplished by the Bayer-Process

Figure1 Bayer Process 3. Alloy For Die Casting The metals currently used to die casting , in order of importance with respect to the volumes of manufactured articles produced, are as follows: -Aluminium and its alloys (AlSi, AlSiCu) -Zinc and its alloys (Zn+Al+Mg alloy) -Copper And its alloys (brass and bronze) -Magnesium and its alloys Aluminium alloy, depending on the type and quality of their constituents, impart to the piece particular physical, mechanical, technological characteristic. The aluminium alloys most commonly employed in manufacturing of casting are those shown in table 1

Table 1 Aluminium alloys for die casting parts

Name of Alloy

Cu Zn

Si

Fe Ti

Ni

Mn

Mg

Pb Sn

GAlloy226 AlSi9Cu3

28,03,5 1,2 11,0

0,11,2 0,15 0,3 0,5

0,10,5 0,2 0,1

G10,50,1Alloy231 AlSi12(Cu) 1,2 0,5, 13,5 1,2 0,15 0,2 0,5

0,4

G10,5Alloy230 AlSi12(Cu) 0,1 0,1 13,5 1

0,15

0,0010,05 0,4

GAlloy239 AlSi10Mg

9,00,1 0,1 11,0

0,15

0,001- 0,20,4 0,5

226 Universal alloy with a very good casting properties. Characterized by a lower tendency for sink marks and shrinkage cavities. Very good machinability. It is used for thick part 231 Eutectic alloy with a good die filling properties, high hot tearing resistance and excellent casting properties. It is used for thin part. 230 Eutectic alloy with a good die filling properties, high hot tearing resistance and excellent casting properties with high chemical resistance. It is used for thin part. 239 Near-eutectic alloy with a good casting 4. High Pressure Die Casting Machine The term die casting is the abbreviation of casting under pressure, It defines the process according to which the molten alloy is cast in a metallic mould and is subjected to pressure, this provokes the following effects; Very rapid filling of the die cavity, Compensatory feeding of solidification shrinkage Perfect and total filling of the die cavity properties, good hot tearing resistance, good machinability and high chemical resistance.

Conferment to the piece of a fine crystalline structure.

High pressure die casting machine has two different type. One of these is cold chamber machine and other is hot chamber machine. 4.1 Hot Chamber Technology Hot chamber type are suitable for the die casting of low melting point alloys as a zinc or tin and for magnesium.

Figure 2- Hot Chamber Die Casting Machine 4.2 Cold Chamber Technology Cold chamber machines can be further subdivided into; vertical type and horizontal type. These different types of presses are shown in figure 3

Vertical cold chamber

Horizontal cold chamber Figure 3- Comparison of injection system between vertical and horizontal cold chamber machine The horizontal cold chamber machine are by far the most widely used and for this reason, except for different specifications, the text will always be referring them. The press group is made up of two plates joined by four columns that also constitute the guides on which the moving plate slides. This is the device that permits the opening and closing of the die, it comprises a fixed plate and a moving plate. The injection device does not act directly on the metal filling the die, but through the shot-sleeve and the piston. The filling of the cavity generally occurs in three separate phases. On the modern die casting machines, an injection system has prevailed, in which on a first, slow approach phase the metal is brought up to the gate and in a second phase , it is pushed into the die cavity in a short filling time with high injection speeds. In the third phase, the casting is consolidated under high pressure, which is created with the aid of an intensifier control system. With a recorder oscillograph, the injection procedure on a die casting machine can be drawn up so that it becomes clearly understandable. The plunger stroke length and the pressure curve are registered in a relation time. The ignificant casting parameters as filling time, shot speed, pressure are clearly seen from the measuring diagram (Figure 4)

Stroke 2.Phase 3.Phase 1.Phase Filling time

Filling pressure Presure

Figure 4- Measuring diagram of three phase injection 5. Gating Design For Die Casting Mould Succesfull application of gating technique in die casting requires far reaching experience and essentially covers the design of runner and gate. In order to make sure of the best design of a die, the preliminary work and planning of such must be done meticulously. Runner design is shown on sample part.In the planning stage following steps are of importance:

Figure 5- Bracket part, weight = 1750 gr

-Deciding upon the alloy best suited for the part, 226 Universal alloy with a very good casting properties and very good machinability. It is used for thick part. So material AlSi9Cu3 can be used to produce for this part. -Definition of the specific casting pressure necessary to produce the casting Table 2- Recommended pressure for die casting part
Requirements relating to quality of Recommended casting die casting pressure for aluminium alloy Parts subjected to little or no mechanical stresses Parts stresses subjected to mechanical thin-walled 300- 400 bar 400- 800 bar 800- 1200 bar

Pressure density or parts with a large area

Bracket parts, which have thin walled must be resistance for very high mechanical stresses. Pressure can be 800-100 bar -Calculation of the projected area for single impression dies and the entire area for multiple impression dies cm2,in order to decide upon the size of the die casting machined to be used. The multiplications of the total projected area with the specific casting pressure necessary to produce the parts determined before. The result is die opening force FLI. Specific pressure is 800 bar that is 9000 N/cm2. Projected area for cavity is 390 cm2 and number of cavities are 2. FLI= 8 (KN/cm2) x 390 cm2 x 2 = 6240 KN

Figure 6- Projected area for bracket part The total casting area is calculated from the projected area of all the impressions on the parting line with the addition of %40 for the runner and overflow system. For casting which have mechanically or hydraulically moving cores that from part of the cavity , to be safe the partial force Fm must be substracted from the locking force FLN of the machine.

Figure 7- Steel core projected area is 85 cm2 Fm= 8 KN x 85 cm2 x2 x tan 21= 522 KN So; FLI+Fm = 6240 + 522= 6762 KN

Total opening force = 6762 x 1.4 x 1.2 ( safe factor) =11360 KN

Figure 8- Locked force Table 3- Locked force for differences type of machines
Machine Type AYHAN 500 IDRA 220 IDRA 320 FRECH 500 FRECH 580 FRECH 720 Locked Force Machine Type (KN) 1470 2450 3450 5800 6670 8280 ITALPRESS 750 FRECH800 IDRA 950 ITALPRESS 1350 BUHLER 1400 ITALPRESS 1850 Locked Force (KN) 7500 9300 9500 13500 14000 18500

Locked force 13500 KN > Opening Force 11360 KN. High pressure die casting machine type is Itallpress 1350 for bracket part. -The gating system of a die casting mould consists of a series of passages through which molten metal can flow into the die and then through the interior of the die to fill the cavity. Gate area Sa

Sa =

mA VA = Vma * Tf p * Vma * Tf

mA = Part weight + Overflow (15% part weight) mA =1750+ 1750*0.15 = 2010 gr p= Gensity = 2.5 gr/ cm3 Vma= Gate velocity Tf= Filling time

Figure 9- Gate velocity If there is big wall thickness after gate area, gate velocity = 20- 40 m/s otherwise, gate velocity = 40- 60 m/s. Tf= The cavity filling time is the time required to push the liquid metal into the die cavity. The cavity filling time must be equal to short time in which the metal solidifies in the cavity and is mainly dependant upon the wall thickness of the casting, respectively on the solidification module. The filling time is computed from the gating equations. The gating equation gives the relationship between all the major process variables. The designer is allowed to select value for all the variables.

Table 4- Filling time according to wall thickness S (mm) 1.5 1.8 2. 2.3 2.5 3. 3.8 5 Tf (ms) 1030 2040 2060 3070 4090 50100 50120 60200

Brackets wall thickness is about 3 mm. So; Table 5- Calculate table for filling time
Wall thickness No s=3 mm Min. wall thickness is far away gate area 1 Min. wall thickness near from the in gate Material230 2 Material226 Part has protrusion and holes 3 Part is more flat Die temperature is low 4 Die temperature is high Runner system is long and gate are more than 1 Runner is short and there is a gate X X X X X X X X X Fast (50ms) X Slow(100ms) Filling time

Tf =

65 + 90 + 60 + 70 + 50 335 = = 67 ms 5 5

Sa =

mA VA = = 2 x(1750 + 260) = 6.85cm 2 = 685mm 2 2 . 5 35 67 0 . 1 x x x Vma * Tf p * Vma * Tf * 0.1

Gate area is found as 685 mm2 and runner system can be designed according to this results

Figure 10- Gate areas for bracket part Conclusion In this study, Parameters which affect design of high pressure aluminium injection moulds are investigated. Effects of die casting gate design like dimension, the needed specifications of the part, selection of the appropriate machine are researched. During these calculations methods and parameters are examined.

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