Aluminum Die Casting Manufacturer

One of the most widely used materials in the die casting industry is Aluminum. Aluminum die casting has been an extremely flourishing industry in all parts of the world generating parts and items that have become house hold items and daily requirements tools for the masses. Aluminium die casting manufacturing units produce a plethora of products ranging from parts in automobile industries all the way to tools that are heavily used in the construction industry.

Aluminum die casting is similiat to magnesium die casting and zinc die casting but different from other metal die casting processes in several ways that make aluminum die casting a widely used industry standard. The primary difference is the type of mold that is being used in the Aluminum die casting manufacturer plants. The other difference in the manufacturing units is the processes and procedures used through which molten metal is delivered to the die. Other die casting manufacturing processes do not provide this type of output. Though molds can certainly be manufactured by an extensive variety of materials, dies are only made of metal. And steel is the predominant die for almost the entire die casting manufacturing units. In almost all the molds that are currently used in the industry ranging from, plaster, iron, steel, and polystyrene, Steel is the only element used as a die. The third difference between aluminum die casting and other forms of die casting is that in Aluminium casting, the die is filed with molten metal. The metal is filled under very strong degrees of pressure in order to ensure a proper filling into the die. In many die casting processes, the liquid metal is simply poured into the die by gravity only. This technique used in the aluminum die casting manufacturing processes enables the manufacturers to substantially produce larger volumes of cast products than any other form of die casting. The ability of mass production and quality has made aluminum die casting process a standard among the thousands of manufactures busy in producing various products for different industries. The top priority of many nascent die manufactures is to fully equip the plant with aluminum die casting. Other die casting manufacturing machines become a second best in the industry.

How large is the global Aluminum die casting manufacturing segment of the market? According to a recently published U.S. Census Bureau there are more than 300 aluminum die casting manufacturing units operational in the United States alone. A good 500 units are set up in China that are producing the world¡¯s largest aluminum die casting by products and supplying the products to all segments of the market. Korea and Australia are both flourishing economies of scale and are rapidly ramping up their total number of units to cater to the ongoing demands of the market. The US Census Bureau reports also states that the Industry-wide employment in 2000 totaled 27,051 workers receiving a payroll of more than $896 million. Within this workforce, 22,621 of these employees worked in production, putting in more than 46 million hours to earn wages of more than $678 million. Overall shipments for the industry were valued at almost $3.9 billion in 2001. And the numbers are growing. A very similar pattern is seen from the Chinese aluminum die casting manufacturing segment. The 500 factories in China proclaim a 58,000 work force dedicated in producing a variety of different aluminum die casting products. Since the die casting industry is skill intensive the salaries of the workers in the manufacturing units are comparitively higher than other manufacturing plants. The average aluminum die casting manufacturing machines alone is as big as regular sized homes in any part of the world. The weight and size of such gigantic machinery requires sufficient and well educated staff to monitor, maintain and expand such machineries.

Since the aluminum casting industry is growing at such an exponential rate so is the vendor industry that is manufacturing the units for the aluminum die casting markets. Herman Doehler, founder of Doehler-Jarvis, developed the first die-casting machine around the turn of the twentieth century. It was in 1915 when the first commercially produced aluminum die-casting manufacturing machinery was shipped to the manufacturing plants. 1915- 1940 were the years in which the manufactures were able to gear up their features in the machinery and align their machineries with the business requirements. Extensive work and feedback from the manufacturing plants provided the turning point for the aluminum die casting machinery. The machines started becoming more user friendly as well as catering to the exponential demand from the market. During the same time span the aluminum die casting market grew at rates of more than 200 percent as compared to other manufacturing industries. In 1946, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported that aluminum die-casting production totaled 73 million pounds, representing about 16 percent of the total die-casting production for all metals that year.

During the years between 1915 and the late 1940’s, different materials were used to cater to the demands in the market. Zinc was a predominant component in the overall die casting market. It was not until the late 1960’s that aluminum surpassed the zinc die casting manufacturing requirements. Throughout the 1970’s, aluminum production continued to expand dramatically, and, by 1988, aluminum die-casting production reached the 1.5 billion-pound mark. Ever since Aluminum surpassed zinc as a material to be used in the die casting industry, it never saw a substantial competitor in the market. Even as The die-casting industry entered the 1990’s; aluminum remained in the top position. The primal reason behind the success of aluminum as an acceptable material in the die casting manufacturing industry was the various advantages of this material in the manufacturing plants. For example, aluminum die-castings weighed about 60 percent less than identical iron products, resisted corrosion, and were stronger than permanent mold or sand castings. Automated production methods produced high quantities at low per-unit costs. By the late 1990s, the automotive industry had discovered the benefits of aluminum and consequently became the largest market for aluminum castings, buying 25 percent of all aluminum produced and nearly one-half of all aluminum die castings produced.

With such a large global market, there are different aluminum die casting vendors in the market. Leading this industry in overall sales was ACX Technologies Inc. of Golden, Colorado with 1998 sales of over $988 million on the strength of 5,600 workers. Another industry leader in terms of innovation is Doehler-Jarvis, inventors of the first die-casting machine.