Zinc Die Castings, while being over twice as heavy as aluminum, have many uses in the everyday products we use today. Zinc alloys offer tight tolerances and extremely repeatable production processes. SDC uses Frech fully automatic zinc machines producing parts ranging from a few grams to 2.5 pounds. Zinc parts can be produced to extremely fine detail with very little draft required on sidewalls and cored holes. Zinc Die castings tooling is long lasting and easy to maintain compared to Aluminum tolling. The melting temperature is lower in zinc die casting as well as the pressure required to produced the casting is much less than aluminum.
If your part is a part requiring close tolerances or thin complex shapes zinc die casting may well be the answer to saving special machining operations. Our team will be happy to assist you in your evaluation.
Zinc Alloys
Zinc-based alloys are the easiest to die cast. Ductility is high and impact strength is excellent, making these alloys suitable for a wide range of products. Zinc alloys can be cast with thin walls and excellent surface smoothness making preparation for plating and painting relatively easy. It is essential that only high purity (99.99 + 0/0) zinc metal be used in the formulation of alloys. Low limits on lead, tin and cadmium ensure the long-term integrity of the alloys strength and dimensional stability.
Zinc-aluminum (Za) Alloys
ZA alloys represent a family of zinc-based die casting materials which contain higher aluminum content than standard zinc alloys. These alloys provide high strength characteristics plus high hardness and good bearing properties. Thin wall castability characteristics and die life are similar to zinc alloys. ZA-8 is recommended for hot chamber die casting, whereas ZA-12 and ZA-27 must be cast by the cold chamber die casting process. All ZA alloys offer similar creep properties and are superior to standard zinc alloys.
Four-Slide Die Casting
Four-Slide Zinc Die casting is a special method of Die Casting requiring a special type of Die Casting machinery. SDC uses Dynacast Model 2A machines. While being limited on size (Max part weight 40g), the machines are extremely efficient & highly accurate. Parts are cast to net shape at speeds up to 40 shots/min. Most tooling for the 4 slide machine will be more economical than for conventional die cast tooling.
If you require small complex parts in high volumes over 25,000 per order, the multi-slide approach may be you best solution. Typical applications are connectors, small housings, office parts, small valves, munitions components, air fittings, special components, fractional motor brackets, Nano technology packaging.