Organised by AIM and ATA in Saint-Vincent

Two days of intense work in conferences characterised “Crossworld High Pressure Die Casting: one technology successfully applied” staged on 27th and 28th September 2007 at the Grand Hotel Billia in Saint-Vincent in the Valle d’Aosta Region.
The event, organised by AIM, the Italian Metallurgy Association, in collaboration with ATA, the Technical Automobile Association, was the occasion for bringing together the main operators in the Italian diecasting industry also in informal convivial moments with a glass of good wine.
The formula chosen for the crossworld was interesting: together with the papers presented by producers of alloys, equipment and products for foundry, it was enhanced by the case histories of outstanding companies in Italian industry like Ferrari and the Fiat Research Centre.
Following the greeting from Claudio Mus, Vice President of AIM and representative of the ATA Valle d’Aosta, Diran Apelian professor at the Metal Processing Institute WPI of Worcester, Usa, inaugurated the morning of 27th September, providing an interesting panorama of the diecasting industry in the United States, from which it emerged that as many as 77% of the diecastings produced in the USA end up in the auto sector (only 5 years ago the figure was 68%!). This figure results on a sort of dependency of the auto compartment and its inevitable oscillations.
Apelian than illustrated the characteristics and benefits of the CRPContinuous Rheocasting Process and APC-Adjusted Pressure Casting. The latter is rather like a combination of VRC-Vacuum Riserless Casting, PRCPressure Riserless Casting and CPCCounter Pressure Casting, integratine vacuum and pressure diecasting in a single process. It is suitable for the production of thin-walled castings, since the die is filled in a very effective way.
This was followed by the intervention of Carlo Carcioffi, head of Ferrari’s lightweight structures. Toady, 100% of Ferrari vehicle features a light alloy chassis considering the obvious advantages deriving from the use of aluminium also for structural components.
To the extent that Ferrari uses the services of an Alcoa plant in Modena - Alcoa for Ferrari - which assembles all the aluminium chassis for the Maranello-based constructor.
Great pleasure was expressed at the intervention by Francesco Franzoni of Fondital in Casto, Italy, a leader in the production of diecast radiators and a great example of a ‘success story’. In its passage from a company based on personal experience to an industry with 2,200 employees and a cash flow of 80 million euros, the interventions were mainly in the increase in parameter controls in order to reduce a part of manual operations in the production process. In this way it has been possibile to achieve a 20% rise in the production capacity of furnaces and to treble margins within the space of just a few years. Fondital is engaged in starting up a factory in Moscow for the production of diecast radiators and acquired a new factory in Valsabbia.
The fatigue resistance of aluminium diecasting components was the topic of the intervention by Mario Rosso of the Turin Polytechnic, who illustrated the state of the art and explained how the process, the defects and the relative microstructure affect the fatigue characteristics of castings. It was highlighted how defects play an important role in fatigue tests; in particular, microcavities close to the external surface are extremely dangerous. Also important are the test method, the samsting ple size effect and the fatigue resistance of the component.
Piero Parona of EnginSoft presented a picture of innovative virtual design methodologies for product/process development.
He stressed how the integration of process simulation makes it possible to optimise the development of components, allowing a reduction of times and costs, of rejects and improved quality combined with higher levels of reliability. He concluded with a review of components produced using EnginSoft simulation.
“Innovative die materials: Tungeste-Composites for High Pressure Die Casting” is the title of the paper presented by J. Berndt of Interguss Giessreiproduckte and F. Miglierina of Omni Tecno. Tungeste-Composites offer outstanding mechanical and physical properties and investment in this technology has a short financial pay-back period, in terms of the durability of die parts and extended service intervals, with a resulting increased productivity; it can be used to great advantage in squeeze pins, anvils and die inserts.
Federico Casarotto of Aluminium Rheinfelden inaugurated the proceedings of Friday 28th September with an intervention on the progress achieved in the field of ductile aluminium high pressare diecasting alloys for the automotive industry. This process began to be developed in the nineties with the first series of space aluminium frames and continued with the use of castings in structural parts and in the future it will involve the amount of light weight components replacing steel. Lastly, he illustrated the characteristics of the alloys produced by Rheinfelden Silafont-36, Magsimal-59 and Castasil-37.
Roberto Boni of Idra illustrated the SLS lubrication system and the SSR-Semi Solid Rheocasting process. The former, developed in collaboration with Baraldi Lubrificanti, makes it possible to effect the real time die surface temperature measurement and its consequent use as a process parameter. The recorded temperature is correlated to all the other process parameters, allowing quality analysis and the entry of production reports. SRS technology enables the aluminium alloy to be used during its solidification, providing lower filling speeds compared with traditional diecasting and reducing porosity caused by flow turbulence. How to optimise die steel was the subject of the intervention by R. Perrone, of Cogne Acciai Speciali, who, in the cooling conditions of the die surface in contact with the aluminium, identified the element with the greatest effect on the die in terms of the speed and pressare of injection of the liquid aluminium.
The cooling technique involves spraying a cooling fluid on the die’s work surfaces. Any operational defect on this parameter considerable alters the thermal conditions under which the die operate. Even a minimal interruption in the temperature of the work surface leads the steel to operate in a field of plastic deformation in which pyrocracks spread irreversibly inside the steel, causing the well-known phenomenon of early ageing, often attributed to the hypothetical poor quality of the steel or unsuitable heat treatment.
Nicol and Sereni of the Fiat Research Centre then illustrated the outlook for diecastings in the future of cars constructed by the Fiat group, presentino some highly interesting information.
Fulvio Piana, of Aubert & Duval, presented a new generation of special steels which provide better performance in diecasting equipment, also ensuring a more than acceptable level of toughness combined with hardness that reach 48 HRC on large blocks.
These are steels with a low silicon content, characterised by a balanced additino of molybdenum, vanadium and nickel as hardening agents. So we are speaking of steels which are also suitable for large dies.
The day wound up with the intervention from Regis Alain of Meridian on the application of diecasting in magnesium in the automotive sector. The event concluded with a visit to the Meridian plant in Verres, equipped with 13 diecasting lines ranging from 420 to 2,500 t.