Would you like to save 43% on Tooling Costs for your Megacasting?

The cost of making a tool is one of the major factors in the part price. This becomes more and more important as the tool grows in size. Let’s use Teslas Megacasting as an example and let me demonstrate how to save this 43%.

Generally, if the customer doesn’t pay for the tool up front, the cost is divided by the number of castings you’re able to make. In conventional aluminium HPDC, you usually make 100,000 parts with one tool. Lower silicon or other exotic alloys reduce that number because of their high wear. Pair that with long flow lengths and/or high pressures, and the number drops even more.

Let’s assume 50.000 parts for a Megacasting tool and about 5 million Euros to make it. This comes out to an even 100€ of tooling cost per part for conventional HPDC. That is a lot!

In Rheocasting, the temperature of the slurry is significantly lower than the liquid metal. There is about a 70 to 80 Kelvin difference in temperature. A Rheocasting slurry already contains a high percentage of solid fraction. So, a substantial amount of the latent heat of the solidification does not reach the tool steel reducing the wear on the tool even more. This results in a lower thermal shock of the tool steel. The longer flow length capabilities of the slurry allow for lower speeds. In HPDC, plunger speeds between 3 and 5 m/s are common. In Rheocasting 0.5 to 1.5 m/s plunger speed are the standard.

In summary, the tool lifetime in Rheocasting is approximately 75% longer than in HPDC. Let’s assume the same 5 million Euros for the tooling costs, but divide it this time by 87500 parts cast. The tooling costs per part, in that case, are only 57,14€. This is a cost reduction of 42,86%!

In this calculation, the costs of the tool management, tool maintenance, PPAP cost for the new tools, and wear on the shot chamber and plunger are not included. These must also be factored in, but they are different for each foundry so they do not appear in this calculation. Also, the carbon footprint of the tool steel used and its compensation is not calculated in this example.

Do you want to learn more about how to save on tooling costs with Rheocasting, schedule a free consultation below.