The castings are made by pouring molten aluminum into either green sand molds or molds made of baked sand. The molds are usually constructed with thick walls which provide sufficient thermal capacity to assure rapid chilling of cast metal. Sand or plaster cores are used in a steel or cast iron mold to produce the more intricate and complex shapes. Die castings - This is the injection under high pressure of molten aluminum into a hardened steel die. The hot chamber die cast machine is mainly used with zinc alloys and ZA-8.
Molten metal is held in a furnace.
Zinc has a meting temperature between 780 - 810 degrees. Under high pressure the piston rams down into the gooseneck forcing the molten zinc from the gooseneck through a nozzle into the die. The metal instantly starts to solidify, the die opens, ejecting the solidified casting. Cycle times are slower then a hot chamber machine because the metal is ladled either manually or automatically. International Organization for Standardization ISO 9000 establishes standards on the selection and use of quality management and quality assurance standards.