J. Mater. Sci. Technol., Vol.24 No.

3, 2008 383
Die Casting Mold Design of the Thin-walled Aluminum Case
by Computational Solidication Simulation
Young-Chan Kim
1)
, Chang-Seog Kang
1)
, Jae-Ik Cho
1)
, Chang-Yeol Jeong
1)
, Se-Weon Choi
1)
and Sung-Kil Hong
2)
1) Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Gwangju, Korea
2) Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea
[Manuscript received September 22, 2007]
Recently, demand for the lightweight alloy in electric/electronic housings has been greatly increased. However,
among the lightweight alloys, aluminum alloy thin-walled die casting is problematic because it is quite dicult
to achieve sucient uidity and feedability to ll the thin cavity as the wall thickness becomes less than 1 mm.
Therefore, in this study, thin-walled die casting of aluminum (Al-Si-Cu alloy: ALDC 12) in size of notebook
computer housing and thickness of 0.8 mm was investigated by solidication simulation (MAGMA soft) and
actual casting experiment (Buhler Evolution B 53D). Three dierent types of gating design, nger, tangential
and split type with 6 vertical runners, were simulated and the results showed that sound thin-walled die casting
was possible with tangential and split type gating design because those gates allowed aluminum melt to ow
into the thin cavity uniformly and split type gating system was preferable gating design comparing to tangential
type gating system at the point of view of soundness of casting and distortion generated after solidication.
Also, the solidication simulation agreed well with the actual die-casting and the casting showed no casting
defects and distortion.
KEY WORDS: Aluminum casting alloy; Thin-wall die casting; Solidication simulation
1. Introduction
Even though silicon-containing aluminum alloys
are known to be one of the most important cast-
ing alloys due to their superior casting characteristics
and unique combination of mechanical and physical
properties such as low density and price, moderately
high strength, good castability
[1,2,3,4]
, manufacturing
of thin-wall aluminum die casting components, less
than 1.0 mm in thickness, is generally known to be
very dicult task to achieve sucient uidity and
feedability. This leads to the limited application of
the aluminum alloy in the elds of materials indus-
try for the housing of notebook computer and cellular
phone, etc.
High pressure die casting (HPDC) is an impor-
tant process in the manufacturing of high volume and
low cost components, such as automatic transmission
housing and electric/electronic housing, an econom-
ical and ecient method for producing components
requiring low surface roughness and high dimensional
accuracy
[5]
.
During die casting process the molten aluminum
alloy is injected into the die cavity at high velocity
(30-100 m/s) and under high pressure (50-80 MPa)
through complex gate and runner systems
[6]
. The
geometric complexity of the dies strongly leads to
three dimensional uid ow with signicant free sur-
face fragmentation and splashing. The ordering in
which various parts of the die was lled and the posi-
tioning of the air vents are crucial to forming homo-
geneous casting components with minimal entrapped
void. This is inuenced by the design of the gating
system and the geometry of the die
[7]
. Therefore, the
gating system has to be optimized for soundness of
surface and no defect.
Ph.D., to whom correspondence should be addressed,
E-mail: kimochan@kitech.re.kr.
Therefore, in this work simulations of lling
and solidication analyses by using the MAGMA-
soft were presented in order to nd the optimal
die design necessary to prevent defects. Moreover
the optimal die casting conditions for producing
297 mm210 mm0.8 mm thin-walled aluminum
components (Al-Si-Cu alloy: ALDC 12) was investi-
gated by actual casting experiment (Buhler evolution
B 53D) for 2 dierent gating systems: tangential and
split type.
2. Experimental
Numerical simulation oers a powerful and cost
eective way to study the eectiveness of dierent
die designs and lling processes, ultimately leading
to improvements of both product quality and pro-
cess productivity, including more eective control of
the die lling and die thermal performance. It is im-
portant for the various defects and incomplete lling
phenomenon to be prevented. Thus, the time loss
and economic expenses must be minimized
[7]
. For ac-
quiring optimal gating system, computational solidi-
cation simulation by using MAGMA soft with nite
volume method (FVM)
[8]
is conducted. The solidi-
cation simulation is able to calculate the mold lling,
solidication and the development of residual stresses
caused during the casting process for three gating de-
signs. The initial conditions and process parameters
and the chemical compositions of casting alloy for this
study are described in Tables 1 and 2. As shown in
Table 1, the melt ladled was about 250 cm
3
and shot
sleeve lling was less than 27% for both gating de-
signs. Also, the initial temperature of the melt was
670

C. Plunger diameter and active length were 70

and 250 mm, respectively. The optimum number of
meshes used in simulation was about 36 and 30 mil-
lion.
384 J. Mater. Sci. Technol., Vol.24 No.3, 2008
Table 1 Process parameters for computational solidication simulation
Tangential type Split type
Geometry data Molten metal ladled 242.957 cm
3
258.084 cm
3
In-gate area 1.496 cm
2
2.253 cm
2
Projected area 804.126 cm
2
823.517 cm
2
Characteristic wall thickness 0.8 mm 0.8 mm
Quality 60 MPa 60 MPa
Sleeve data Plunger diameter 70 mm 70 mm
Active length 250 mm 250 mm
Shot sleeve lling 25.252 % 26.825 %
Plunge area 4310.913 mm
2
4310.913 mm
2
shot sleeve volume 1077.728 cm
3
1077.728 cm
3
Process data Slow shot velocity 0.35 m/s 0.35 m/s
Theoretical lling time 8.830 ms 8.830 ms
Fast shot velocity 2.2 m/s 3.2 m/s
Cavity lling time 9.272 ms 6.354 ms
Velocity at in-gate 56.596 m/s 54.664 m/s
Table 2 The chemical compositions of ALDC12 alloy (in wt pct)
Alloy Cu Si Mg Zn Fe Mn Ni Sn Al
ALDC12 1.53.5 9.612.0 0.3 1.0 0.8 0.5 0.5 0.3 Bal.
Fig.1 Schematic illustration of nger type gating system: (a) case 1, (b) case 2
Fig.2 Temperature distribution of nger type gating system: (a) case 1, (b) case 2
J. Mater. Sci. Technol., Vol.24 No.3, 2008 385
Fig.3 Schematic illustration of tangential type gating system: (a) case 3, (b) case 4
Fig.4 Temperature distribution of tangential type gating system: (a) case 3, (b) case 4
3. Results and Discussion
3.1 Results of temperature distribution
For the decision of optimal gating system, the
lling simulation was conducted for 3 dierent gat-
ing designs: nger, tangential and split type. First,
the nger type gating system has the merits that are
maintenance of the melt temperature and distribu-
tion of the melt. As shown in Fig.1, two cases for
shape and size of runner and gate were investigated.
Figure 2 shows the temperature distribution and ll-
ing patterns. Both case 1 and 2 had the melt with
temperature below liquidus after passing through the
ingate and at that point the melt wasnt able to form
the uniform melt ow. And nger type gating system
was very dicult to control approach time at ingate
area.
The tangential type gating system has no inter-
ference during lling, continuous and directional melt
ow. Figure 3 shows tangential type gating designs,
with extended ingate and 85% length compared to
the end line of casting. The results of case 3 showed
that the melt injected dropped the temperature at the
last lling area but it didnt separate with the main
stream. On the other hand, in the case 4 the cavity
was lled with melt above the liquidus temperature
but it occurred back ow near gate because metal
pressure didnt aect the casting by the short ingate
length as shown in Fig.4. The back ow might cause
surface defects.
The split type gating system is easy to control the
approach time at ingate area and minimize the dis-
tortion of casting after trimming. Two cases were in-
vestigated for the size and shape of the ingate. Figure
5 shows split type gating designs with 4 and 6 verti-
cal runners. As shown in Fig.6, the case 5 shows the
melt introduced separately in cavity with thin-wall is
cooled strongly. It may cause the misrun and defects
like ow line and ow mark. The case 6 with 6 ver-
tical runners minimizing the distance among ingates
had the eect of minimizing for drop temperature,
maintained continuous ow during lling.
Three dierent types gating design were used and
the results showed that the sound thin-walled die cast-
ing was possible with tangential and split type gating
design because those gates allowed aluminum melt
ow to into the thin-wall cavity uniformly.
3.2 Results of air entrapment, residual stress, dis-
placement and casting experiment
It was found that tangential type gating system
386 J. Mater. Sci. Technol., Vol.24 No.3, 2008
with extended ingate and split type gating system ex-
hibited quite uniform melt ow throughout the lling
Fig.5 Schematic illustration of split type gating system: (a) case 5, (b) case 6
Fig.6 Temperature distribution of split type gating system: (a) case 5, (b) case 6
Fig.7 Results of air entrapment; (a) tangential type gating system, (b) split type gating system
of the cavity. So these two gating designs were se-
lected to study the solidication and stress simula-
tion. The defects were predicted by air entrapment.
As shown in Fig.7, the tangential type gating de-
sign showed higher back pressure (about 1 MPa) and
air volume than split type, which might result in air
porosity. On the other hand, split type gating design
had little air pocket, so the location of overow has
to be corrected.
Since thin-walled aluminum housing fabricated in
this work was only 0.8 mm in thickness, the residual
stress and replacement after trimming are very impor-
tant factors to its mass production. Figure 8 shows
the results of residual stress and replacement after
J. Mater. Sci. Technol., Vol.24 No.3, 2008 387
trimming. Results of residual stress were both tan-
gential and split type design, but the cold crack was
less possible to occur after solidication. Moreover
the value after trimming was nearly zero. Results of
replacement after trimming (Fig.9) showed tangential
type and split type had each displacement of 0.8 mm
and 0.7 mm for x-direction after trimming. It was
predicted that this displacement was caused by ma-
chining of the runner.
Fig.8 Results of residual stress: (a) tangential type gating system, (b) split type gating system
Fig.9 Results of replacement after trimming: (a) tangential type gating system, (b) split type gating system
Fig.10 Results of actual casting experiment: (a) tangential type gating system, (b) split type gating system
388 J. Mater. Sci. Technol., Vol.24 No.3, 2008
For the comparison with results of computa-
tional solidication simulation and actual casting, the
silicon-containing aluminum casting alloy, ALDC 12,
was cast by using a high speed die casting machine
with both tangential and split type gating systems.
As shown in Fig.10, defects including misrun and
cracks were observed in the specimens in the tangen-
tial type gating system while the split type resulted
in sound casting with the highest injection speed of
4.5 m/s.
4. Conclusions
(1) It was necessary for minimizing temperature
drop, maintenance of continuous ow during lling to
control defects.
(2) The results of computational solidication sim-
ulation showed that split type gating system was
preferable gating design to tangential type at the
point of view of ow pattern and distortion generated
after solidication.
(3) The results of solidication simulation agreed
very well with those of actual die casting.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Korea Institute of Indus-
trial Technology and Gwangju Metropolitan City under
The Advanced Elements and Materials Industry Develop-
ment Program.
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