A STUDY OF EROSION IN DIE-CASTING DIES BY A MULTIPLE PIN ACCELERATED EROSION TEST

An accelerated erosion test was developed to evaluate the erosion resi stance of die materials and coatings for die casting application. An a cceleration in wear was achieved by selecting pyramid-shaped core pins , hypereutectic aluminum silicon casting alloy, high melt temperatures and high gate velocities, Multiple pin design was selected to enable multiple test sites for comparative evaluation. A pilot run was conduc ted on a 300 ton commercial die casting machine at various sites (pins ) to verify the thermal and flow similarities. Subsequently, campaigns were run on two different 300 ton commercial die casting machines to evaluate H13 die material and different coatings for erosive resistanc e. Coatings and surface treatments evaluated included surface micropee ning, titanium nitride, boron carbide, vanadium carbide, and metallic coatings-tungsten, molybdenum, and platinum, Recent campaigns with dif ferent melt temperatures have indicated a possible link between solder ing phenomena and erosive wear This paper presents the details of the test set up and the results of the pilot and evaluation tests.