The Solution for Gigacastings

Gigacastings helped the sleepy HPDC industry regain its momentum. Nothing has disrupted the foundry industry since the invention of ductile high-pressure die-castings in the 1990s. With each iteration, parts got slightly bigger, and the process equipment improved.

The Process Improvement of Gigacastings

Then came the breaking point. Instead of purchasing 70 individual sheet metal formings and castings from various suppliers, shipping them to a Tier 1 who welds and screws the parts together and delivers the assembly to the OEM, Tesla made the Gigacasting.

The process efficiency gain in developing, perfecting, checking, and approving just one part instead of 70 parts is noticeable. It is also a significant loss of work for the supply chain if an existing OEM goes in that direction. Just a few foundries went toward 6000- to 9000-ton machines. The value added is taken in-house, increasing the profit or making the cars cheaper. When you add the millions from the salaries of the purchasing and supplier quality management departments you don’t need anymore, you significantly impact your cost structure.

The Business Risks of Gigacastings

That is the view of a controller just looking at the numbers. Everyone working with castings knows that small casting makes small problems, and big casting makes big problems. The Gigacasting is no exception to that rule. It is challenging to shoot 60 to 80 kg of liquid aluminium through a cavity and expect good crash properties after 2.5 meters of flow length.

The casting goes through several steps and suppliers in the normal purchasing process. Castings are easy to handle and store, so keeping a few days or weeks of reserve is simple. During that buffer time, you can do all the quality checks and ensure the casting meets specifications.

In a Gigacasting foundry, behind the foundry wall, there is directly the car production line. Every casting that comes out of the gigantic presses already has a slot in the production line reserved. If the flow of casting stops, thousands of people wait around to continue their work. In the eyes of a standing car production facility, the hourly rate of your casting machine is neglectable.

The Solution for the Casting Process

The question for Gigacasting producers is how to reduce the business risk and ensure sound and homogeneous properties throughout the casting. Rheocasting offers these capabilities. Shear forces allow a thixotropic slurry to travel long distances at low metal speeds and achieve consistently high properties. That drastically reduces the risk of faulty castings with porosities, hot tearings, or bad weldability. In addition, due to the lower speeds and slurry temperature, the tool lifetime can be significantly improved. Considering the tooling costs in the multi-millions, that is a huge win. Or you can produce the same parts in smaller machines, substantially reducing investment costs.

It will be a race in which the car maker implements Rheocasting first in its Gigacasting production. So, what works for Gigacastings works also for your foundry. Discover unlock high properties, long tool lifetimes and sustainable alloys and develop a personalised Rheocasting Strategy. Schedule a free Consultation Call today.