Evaluation of permanent die coatings to improve the wear resistance of die casting dies. Final project report, January 1, 1995--April 30, 1997

Die Casting dies are subject to severe service conditions during the die casting operation. While these severe conditions are necessary to achieve high production rates, they cause the dies which are commonly made of H13 die steel, to suffer frequent failures. The major die failure mechanisms are erosion or washout, Heat checking, soldering and corrosion. Due to their geometrical complexity, die casting dies are very expensive (some dies cost over a million dollars), and thus a large number of parts have to be produced by a die, to justify this cost and leverage the advantages of the die casting process (high production rates, low manpower costs). A potential increase in the die service life, thus has a significant impact on the economics of the die; casting operation. There are many ways to extend die life: developing new wear resistant die materials, developing new surface treatments including coatings, improving heat treatment of existing H13 dies, using better lubricants that can protect the die material, or modifying the die geometry and process parameters to reduce the intensity of wear. Of these the use of coatings to improve the wear resistance of the die surface has shown a lot of promise. Consequently, use of coatings in the die casting industry and their wide use to decrease die wear can improve significantly the productivity of shop operations resulting in large savings in material and energy usage