We discover that our two hands can be simultaneously doing different tasks at a young age. This seems to be forgotten when many die cast cells are set up. Yes it is easier to plan a process in a sequential manner. Unfortunately it is difficult to be competitive when the casting cell operates in a sequential fashion.

Early in my career I was charged with automating an entire plant. This plant specialized in making some of the most difficult castings in the game. In most cases it was necessary to achieve the same cycle time that the best cast operators could achieve to make good quality parts. This forced me to micro analyze how a manual die caster could beat the robots. It turned out that they learned how to jump the gun

Running an automated die casting cell is about synchronizing the moving elements.

Die Cast machine clamp — Shot — Die — Extractor — Ladle — Spray robot

It is difficult to win a relay race if you wait every time that you are supposed to pass the baton.

1. Pretip of the ladle cup and pouring directly into the sleeve starts at die face touch results in the pour half complete at die lock and no wait for metal run to complete down the launder.
2. Subcore pulled at end of dwell
3. Slides open during die open
4. Extractor reaches through a window in door starting 4 inches before die full open (I leave both doors closed)
5. Sprayer partially advances during extract
6. Slides close during spray
7. Sprayer completes return home during die close
8. Subcores close during pour

In this era of Mega presses, automated casting cycle time is even more critical to realizing a profit. It is also fortunate that casting quality improves with reduced cycle time as long as the dwell and spray time is unchanged. As you look at your own casting operation be aware that some of your competitors understand parallel action.

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven… all the way to the 60 second rule. Coworkers think I am crazy when they hear me counting out loud to sixty. This is a success habit. I am impatient. Counting out loud keeps me from turning the power back on too soon. It is also a good training tool because people ask what I am doing.

In our electronic age many of the controls are computer operated. I installed the pictured 200 amp motor soft start on my 3500 ton die cast machine because I wanted to free enough power to run oil heaters. Lightning strikes. About 12 times per year it hits the power grid within 5 miles of the die casting plant. Usually trips out this motor soft start computer with a fault code. Enter the 60 second rule. The soft start error happily resets if you leave it off for the 60 second rule. Also applies to the crane drives, the CNC machining centers, Gun drills, Just about every piece of equipment with an embedded computer. The residual power must drain to force a reboot. Count to 60 out loud before you call the service technician.

Little kids naturally understand how easily balls move around. They have a blast “swimming” through a sea of balls in a ball pit. For those of us that have not experienced that pleasure, the motion of a mass of ball is not intuitive. This is probably why it is sometimes hard to explain the benefit of creating a spherical grain structure.

Many die cast practitioners only have experience making small castings. This is because 800 ton die cast machines are what was historically found in die casting plants. Todays casting purchasers have discovered the cost advantage of combining multiple casting into one. According the castings have become larger. As always one of the challenges is getting the metal to the far end of the part before it solidifies. This is usually accomplished by rapid injection. As the fill path becomes longer it become necessary to use faster injection speeds. Faster injection speed causes flash and venting problems. I would rather use finesse. Rheocast metal with a spherical structure can be injected at 1/3 of the speed taking advantage of the way balls flow smoothly past one another. Any kid in a ball pit would understand this.

Five years after I installed these hoods, I happened to be in the area and stopped in to talk with the supervisors of this plant. It turns out one of the hoods caught fire. An employee was driving in after dark and he was sure that a dragon had landed on the roof and was breathing fire into the stratosphere. They were complaining about the only damage that they immediately needed to fix which was the fabric sock between the duct and blower on the roof. I asked them if the roof caught on fire which is what normally happens. Flat roofs on northern die cast plants have 3 inches of foam insulation under a rubber membrane. I said good. The fiberglass insulation without paper around the duct at the roof penetration worked as planned. I asked if the duct pipe fell down. No but it bent a little when it turned orange hot. I said good, the slip joint just below the roof let the duct grow as it got hot. They admitted that they thought I was crazy when I enforced these protective design measures during installation.