Understanding

Mechanical Property Variations

in Die Castings

NADCA – 01/21/2015

1
 Outline
• Published Properties
• Impact of Chemical Composition
• Impact of Section Thickness
• Other Factors – Aging, Defects
• Summary

2
 Published Properties

3
 Aluminum Properties

4
 Zinc Properties

5
 Magnesium Properties

6
 Impact of
Chemical Composition

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 Poll Question 1
• Does your company need to meet a
tighter composition range than
allowed by the standard specification
limits?
– Yes
– No

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 Major Elements for Aluminum
• Silicon (Si)
– Primarily for fluidity
– Little impact on strength unless
combined with magnesium
• Copper (Cu)
– Has single greatest impact on
strength
– Reduces corrosion resistance
• Magnesium (Mg)
– Combines with silicon to
strengthen (Mg2Si)
– Combines with Cu also (Al2CuMg)
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 Minor Elements for Aluminum
• Nickel (Ni)
– Improves high temperature
strength
• Manganese (Mn) and Chromium
(Cr)
– Modifies the needle-like iron
phase
Al5FeSi Needles
• Iron (Fe)
– Considered an impurity
– Helps resist solder
– Hurts strength and ductility
• Zinc (Zn)
– An acceptable impurity
– Quite neutral

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 Aluminum Compositions

Example:
For A380,
Is Cu 3.1 or 4.0%?
Is Mg 0.05 or 0.3%?

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 Impact of Iron
• Increasing iron decreases strength and ductility

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13
 iSelect-Al
• Property prediction based on chemistry

1. Fill the boxes 2. Click to run

with the alloy the prediction
chemistry

Click the tabs

to see physical
properties

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 iSelect-Al
• Chemistry prediction based on properties
• Program: http://www.diecastingdesign.org/alloy/

1. Fill all five

requirements

Chemistry of
the predicted
alloy
2. Click to run
the prediction

Click to open
another form
to list other
properties of
the predicted
alloy

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 iSelect-Al
• http://www.diecastingdesign.org/alloy/

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 Major Elements for Zinc
• Aluminum (Al)
– Improves mechanical strength
• Magnesium (Mg)
– Added for intergrannular corrosion
resistance
• Copper (Cu)
– Adds hardness, tensile strength, and
creep resistance but lowers impact

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 Zinc Compositions

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 Major Elements for Magnesium
• Aluminum (Al)
– Improves mechanical strength, corrosion
properties and castability
– IMA site has a curve showing strength vs Al for
AM alloys
• Zinc (Zn)
– Adds minor improvement in strength and
corrosion properties
• Manganese (Mn)
– Added to control iron content
• Silicon (Si) and Rare Earths
– Added for elevated temperature improvements

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 Magnesium Compositions

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 Impact of Section Thickness

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 Poll Question 2
• Do you do any of the following in
order to maximize properties? (check
all that apply)
– Minimize section thickness
– Maximize die cooling
– Use high thermal conductivity die
components
– Modify alloy chemistry

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 Section Thickness and Solidification
• Thin walls solidify quickly
• Thick walls solidify more slowly
• The faster the solidification the finer
the microstructure (dendrite arm
spacing)
• The finer the microstructure the
higher the mechanical properties

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 The Skin
• The first to solidify at the cavity surface
is a very fine dense structure and
strong due to very fast solidification
• Solidification rate reduces as distance
from the cavity wall increases and the
structure coarsens

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 Dendrite Arm Spacing
• Faster solidification smaller DAS
higher strength
240
220
200
UTS (MPa)

180
160
140
120
100
20 25 30 35 40
Mean Dendrite Arm Spacing (μm)

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 Tensile Specimens
• As cast
– Contain the skin
– Small DAS: 0.25” diam. high solidification rate
• Machined from castings
– Skin is removed
– Usually from a section of lower solidification rate

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 Tensile Specimens
• Microstructures of
tensile specimens made
of A380 aluminum alloy
and three variants. All
separately cast show a
finer grain size than the
specimens machined
from castings.

Separately die cast Machined 27

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 Other Factors

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 Aging Impacts Properties
• Natural aging of aluminum alloys can
slightly increase tensile properties
• Natural aging of zinc alloys can
decrease tensile strength and
increase or decrease elongation

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 Aging of Aluminum Alloys
48 40
Ultimate Tensile Strength (ksi) Yield Strength (ksi) 38
46 46 36
46 35 34
45 45

44 30 29
43 43 43 43 28
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42 25 24 24
41 41 41 23 23
22
40 21
40

4 months
4 months

4 months
4 months

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1 month
1 month

1 month
1 month

4 months

4 months
4 months

4 months
1 month

1 month
1 month

1 month
1 day

1 day

1 day
1 day

1 day
1 day
1 day

1 day
38 15

36 10
A380 A380* AMC 380 AMC 1045 Sr A380 A380* AMC 380 AMC 1045 Sr

3.5 350
elongation (%) Quality Index
3.0 2.8
𝑸𝑰 = 𝒀𝑺 + 𝟐𝟏𝟎 × 𝐥𝐨𝐠 %𝒆 + 𝟏𝟑
300
2.6 2.6 287
2.6 277
2.5 2.4 2.3 2.4 2.4
2.3 262
250 238
244
2.0
221 222
210 212
1.5 201 200
200 195
1.2 1.2 1.2
4 months

4 months

4 months
1 month

1 month

1 month

1.0
1 day

1 day
1 day

4 months
1 month

4 months
1 month

1 month

1 month
1 month
4 months

4 months

4 months
150
1 day

1 day

1 day

1 day

1 day
0.5

0.0 100
A380 A380* AMC 380* AMC 1045 Sr A380 A380* AMC 380* AMC 1045 Sr

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 Aging of Zinc Alloys

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 Defects Can Impact Properties
• Flow defects, porosity, and inclusions
in an excessive amount can reduce
the effective cross sectional area and
act as stress risers

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 Summary
• Properties for a given alloy can vary depending
on what the specific chemical composition is
within the acceptable range
– Reducing Fe to 0.4% increases strength and ductility in
aluminum alloys
• Solidification rate, and hence section thickness,
can cause a variation in properties
• Removal of the surface skin reduces properties
measured on test bars
• Excessive defects can degrade properties
• Best properties for a given alloy composition are
achieved through high solidification and
maintenance of the skin

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 Additional Resources
• Microstructures and Properties of Aluminum Die Casting Alloys
(#215)
• High Integrity Aluminum Die Casting (#307)
• Magnesium Die Casting Handbook (#201)
• Zinc Die Casting Process (#202)
• NADCA Product Specification Standards for Die Castings (#402)
• T75-012 Mechanical Properties of Die Castings Made from
Aluminum Alloys with Maxima of 0.1 to 0.3% Mg, by Bruner
• T97-071 Tensile Properties of Aluminum Die Casting Alloys, by
Wang, Apelian, Makhlouf
• T11-023 “Green” HPDC Alloys Having Low Fe for Improved
Mechanical Properties and Sr for Die Soldering Resistance, by
Donahue
• T11-022 Development of High Performance Die Casting Alloys
Part 2, Wang, Apelian, Makhlouf
• Other Congress Transactions
• DCE Articles

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35
 Questions
Name: Steve Udvardy
Phone: 847-808-3163
Email: udvardy@diecasting.org

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