Soldering in magnesium high pressure die casting and its preservation by surface engineering

Magnesium alloys are the lightest structural metallic materials and their importance in a range of industries has been rising in the last ten years. To the automotive and electronics industries, the most attractive properties of magnesium alloys are their light weight, strength to weight ratio, higher strength of thin/very thin section, high quality surface finish and precise dimension of cast components. With the increased use of magnesium alloys especially in high pressure die casting, the phenomenon of soldering of magnesium alloys is attracting more attention. Soldering is the sticking of casting alloy to the die surface and leaving of drag marks on both the die and casting surface after part ejection. Soldering increases the rejection rate and the machine downtime, and serious soldering may damage the die which can cost hundreds of thousands, or even a million dollars to make. Because thin walled casting is one of the major advantages of magnesium high pressure die casting compared to other alloys, slight soldering can result in serious production problem. This project is aimed at understanding the soldering problem in the magnesium high pressure die casting process and applying surface engineering approaches to reduce or even eliminate it.