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. Aluminum 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 also different from other metal die casting
(http://automobile.dmc.co.kr/eng/die-casting.asp ) 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 manufacturing 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 Aluminum die 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 dollar. 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 dollar. Overall
shipments for the industry were valued at almost 3.9 billion dollar 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 die 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 1970s, 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 1990s; 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 dollar on
the strength of 5,600 workers. Another industry leader in terms of
innovation is Doehler-Jarvis, inventors of the first die-casting
machine. For more information about Aluminum Die Casting Manufacturer
visit: http://automobile.dmc.co.kr/eng/Aluminum-Die-Casting-Manufacturer.asp
