Blowing Out a Die

The customer runs continuous aluminum die casting machines to produce transmission components for Chrysler vehicles. Part of the process involves spraying the dies with a die lube to ensure good release from the die itself. However, once finished spraying the die lube, there is usually an excess of die lube in the mold. The result when there is too much die lube is a rejected casting due to air pockets formed when the die lube comes into contact with the molten aluminum and a void is formed in the casting. This causes a reject situation. Their average cost for a rough casting is $50.00. So, every time this happens, $50.00 goes back into the re-process bin. This situation can happen perhaps as often as three or four times per hour. Variables, such as die configuration affect the effectiveness of the release spray. The customer is now using a Model 110018 18" (457mm) Super Air Knife to mount onto their "end of arm" tooling for the robots that perform the die lubing operation. By making one or two passes with the air knife, they can blow the excess lube from troublesome areas of the mold. At a rough rate of 4 scrap pieces per hour, per machine, this results in a $200 savings per machine per hour.

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