Designing Zinc Die Castings for Tomorrow's Automobile

The development of new zinc alloys and technological improvements in the die casting process offer enhanced opportunities for zinc die castings in automotive component design. Improved benefits such as lighter weight, lower cost and increased performance can be achieved by combining the required mechanical and physical properties of end-use requirements with the enhanced production capabilities of the zinc die casting process.

This paper reviews the available zinc alloys and describes several automotive applications for zinc die castings where end-use requirements were evaluated and an appropriate zinc alloy was selected to meet these requirements. The high dimensional precision achievable with zinc die casting enabled their production to net or near-net shape.