European Die Casting Award 2022

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10. February 2022

New award for European die castings: For the first time, the German Die Casting Association (Verband Deutscher Druckgießereien e.V. - VDD) and the trade fair EUROGUSS organize the European Die Casting Competition.

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The competition was also supported by the Federal Association of the German Foundry Industry e.V. (Bundesverband der Deutschen Gießerei-Industrie e.V. - BDG), the General Association of the Aluminum Industry (Gesamtverband der Aluminiumindustrie e.V. - GDA) and the European Magnesium Research Association e.V. (Europäischen Forschungsgemeinschaft Magnesium e.V. - EFM). This competition was intended to demonstrate to the public and customers in particular the diversity of applications, the innovative strength, the high level of quality and the performance of the die-casting process in the materials aluminium, magnesium and zinc.

The competition entries were evaluated individually in the materials and evaluated in terms of innovation, quality, cost-effectiveness, resource-efficient design and level of difficulty. Subsequently, the three best parts for each material will be awarded.

Around 30 die castings were submitted by the end of September 2021 and in mid-January 2022 the winners were honoured in an entertaining and interesting online presentation by Martin Vogt (BDG) and Chris Boss (EUROGUSS).

The most innovative and technically outstanding die-cast products made of the materials aluminium, magnesium and zinc were awarded.

Now the winners have been announced:

See the exhibit and the award winners in the individual categories here:

Winner Category Zinc Die Casting

1st prize: Assembly consisting of three die-cast parts / housing-lid-front, Dipl. Siegfried Müller GmbH & Co. KG
2nd prize: Gearshift handle, automotive interior, HDO Druckguss- u. Oberflächentechnik GmbH*
3rd prize: Clamping plate, Teilemacherei GmbH*

Winners Category Magnesium Die Casting
1st prize: Cross Car Beam HUD / Instrument Cross Beam / Legal Support, GF Casting Solutions Schaffhausen
2nd prize: TKS 80 table top, TORUN Bark Magnesium GmbH*
3rd prize: Cone Holder EE0043-30-2020, Dynacast Deutschland GmbH*

Winner Category Aluminium Die Casting
1st prize: One-piece upper shell of a rear axle beam made of die-cast aluminium, Albert Handtmann Metallgusswerk GmbH & Co. KG
2nd prize: System Carrier, Alupress AG Brixen*
2nd prize: SP52 lower housing, BMW AG Landshut plant*
3rd prize: Housing 3498 & 3D-printed sample, Matthies Druckguss GmbH & Co. KG*

*See here to see the 1st place winners in their category and their castings
The photos plus descriptions of the castings of the other winners will follow in Part II here on Foundry-Planet in the next few days.

Assembly consisting of three die-cast parts / housing-cover-front
Dipl. Siegfried Müller GmbH & Co. KG
Zinc category: 1st place

Dimension (L x W x H): 100 mm x 94 mm x 29 mm

Weight: 235 Gramm

Alloy: ZP5

Description:
n.a.

Design, casting and molding requirements:
n.a.

Reasons for manufacturing in die casting:
Good shielding for electronic components made of zinc / high design possibilities with low manufacturing costs / high-quality surfaces without additional processing steps

Cross Car Beam HUD / Instrument Crossbar / Legal Entity
GF Casting Solutions, Schaffhausen
Magnesium category: 1st place

Dimension (L x W x H): 508 mm x 300 mm x 1523 mm

Weight: 3.480 gram

Alloy: AM50

Description:
Highly stressed component which must also offer very high stiffness under dynamic loads in order to exclude vibrations, e.g. in the area of the steering wheel or the head-up display. In addition, the component must allow a high degree of deformability (e.g. in crash behavior).

Design, casting and molding requirements:
Representation of the necessary requirements in a restricted installation space, which meant that the cross sections in the casting had to be designed flexibly. The ribbing was designed to meet the stresses, which was continuously evaluated by simulation in terms of mold filling and solidification behavior. Integration of as many different functions as possible in the casting (attachment of add-on parts, integration of brackets, etc.).

Reasons for manufacturing in die casting:
Due to the highly restricted installation space, die casting offers the possibility of optimum utilization of the free spaces and thus a design that is more suitable for the stresses. In addition, the use of magnesium makes it possible to achieve the high stresses in a low weight.

One-piece upper shell of a die-cast rear axle carrier
Albert Handtmann Metallgusswerk GmbH & Co. KG
Aluminum category: 1st place & audience award

Dimension (L x W x H): 1.260 mm x 670 mm x 390 mm

Weight: 19.300 gram

Alloy: Al Si 10MnMg

Description:
High functional integration with connection points for the mounting of control arms, struts and stabilizers, the electric drive unit and for fastening the parts composite to the vehicle body.
Worthy of particular mention is the creation of a closed cavity by means of a hollow profile integrated into the casting process which, in conjunction with the topology-optimized design of the upper shell, meets all strength, stiffness and NVH requirements in the die casting process. The integral design of the TOP-HAT avoids complex joining processes and eliminates various individual components.

Design, casting and molding requirements:
In the casting and mold design of the 36to DGF with a contour slide, supported by various simulation software, the focus was on the following features: optimum filling over the entire component and in part local compaction of the critical functional areas, optimum vacuum-assisted venting of the cavity, material reductions of thick-walled areas taking into account the strength requirements, optimization of the processing contents and contours, use of special mold technology such as JetCooling integrated in the squeezing area and the fixing of a long cavity-generating insert to improve the NVH behavior.
The basis for this was provided in advance by: design space investigations, various fatigue analyses and calculations, topology optimization, stress and distortion calculations, development of a centering and fixing concept for the insert, and consideration of thermal expansion and shrinkage.

Reasons for manufacturing in die casting:
The one-piece die casting design eliminates complex assembly steps (e.g. welding processes). Various parts/components could be eliminated. Mechanical processing can be carried out in a single clamping operation. The insert molding technique achieves weight reduction with the same or higher component performance. Thus, die casting has turned out to be the optimal and most economical process for us.