Understanding Defects in High Integrity Die Castings

When commercializing squeeze casting and semi-solid metalworking processes, component producers looked to conventional die casting to identify potential defects and control component quality. Several defects were expected including cold shuts, cold flows, flash, drags, warping, and gas entrapment, just to name a few. Efforts were taken to avoid these defects. New defect types, however, have surfaced unique to these high integrity die casting processes. Contaminant veins and phase separation are presented. Although, squeeze casting and semi-solid metalworking have proven to be successful, component producers have been reluctant to report defects for fear of giving these emerging processes a bad reputation. Nonetheless, these defects must be understood to avoid future problems.