Zinc Alloy Fluidity
Zinc alloy fluidity and why is it important in the manufacturing industry? Well, to help us kind of answer that and learn more about zinc diecasting and alloys, we have Dave Magner, the Director of Sales and Marketing at Deco Products Company.
The zinc diecasting process is all about taking the right recipe of metal alloy, which includes different components for zinc. The number one component within the zinc alloys is zinc itself, with aluminum coming in second. Chemistry is so important because it really impacts the different characteristics of the alloy and really lends itself well to what is important to the designer.
How Zinc Melts
The zinc diecasting process is all about melting that material down and then using a two-half mold so that you shoot this molten zinc in and able to achieve the right geometry, which would relate to really the right functionality of the part so, the type of material is so, so key in that process.
An important aspect to zinc is to understand the intricate, complicated features of the part itself. Zinc has great dimensional stability, and a big part of that is how it melts and how it fits into the mold and then ultimately cools. Understanding what your base material is, whether it's plastic or zinc, is so important in one's part design.
Zinc is very fluid. When it melts, it's almost like water so it's all about the viscosity of the material where other materials might be syrupier. Because zinc flows well up until the point it's cooled it can get into certain areas of the mold that can be very detailed or a closer tolerance that you might need. It may be a small feature that other materials just couldn't achieve
Another aspect about fluidity and some of the aspects of zinc and that it can be dimensionally, very stable, is some of those features might require a secondary operation, or you may not be able to hold those tolerances or create those features in other materials, but in zinc you can, thus avoiding all that post processing cost. So those are a couple of elements where zinc and the fluidity of zinc really can help out with the cost impact.
Design & Casting Collaboration
At DECO Products we really pride ourselves on a great collaborative relationship with, ultimately, the designer that understands the function of that part with our expertise and the manufacturability. And so, when you have those two elements converging together, an optimal design can come into play. And how that really impacts the tool design is that we need to communicate to the part designer how fluidity works and how zinc can flow because it's a very quick process
Many thank to Dave Magner, Sales Director, Deco Products: https://decoprod.com/