In recent years, the large-scale integrated die-casting technology that emerged with Tesla has become one of the hottest trends in the industry. The promotion and application of the integrated die-casting process requires equipment, molds, processes, materials, etc. to be matched with it. Due to the large projected area of integrated die-casting parts, heat treatment can easily cause dimensional deformation and surface defects of parts. For large-scale integrated parts, it is necessary to bear huge cost risks. Therefore, integrated die castings tend to use heat-free aluminum alloy materials.
560 Alloy
Cast aluminum alloy has always been one of the product lines of Alcoa (hereinafter referred to as Alcoa), but Alcoa only provides various cast aluminum alloy ingots for downstream foundries, and does not directly participate in the production of aluminum castings.
Before the rise of integrated die-casting technology, in 2008, Alcoa’s 560 heat-free cast aluminum alloy was used in the large-size door parts of Nissan GT-R. Nissan’s door parts were produced in Soest, Germany. They were the largest vacuum die-casting auto parts at that time, with a projected area of 0.5m2, a wall thickness of only 2mm~3mm, and a weight of only 5.5kg, achieving a weight reduction of 35%.
The 560 alloy developed by Alcoa is a cast aluminum alloy without heat treatment, with Mn and Mg as the main alloying elements, which play the role of solid solution strengthening. The properties of 560 alloy castings are not sensitive to heat treatment, and are usually supplied in the F state, and the mechanical properties exceed the AlSi10MnMg alloy castings in the T6 state.
EZCast-NHT alloy
On April 22, 2015, at the 119th Metal Casting Conference of the American Foundry Society, Alcoa released 4 new cast aluminum alloy products for the automotive industry: SupraCast, EZCast, VersaCast, and EverCast. Among them, the EZCast series alloys are specially developed for high pressure casting to form thin-walled parts. The name EZCast derives from its high flow, thermal stability and low shrinkage porosity, which make the alloy very easy to cast, while at the same time exhibiting considerable yield strength and elongation compared to conventional alloys in the field.
In 2019, in order to meet the needs of the large-scale die casting market, Alcoa upgraded the EZCast series, which was optimized for heat treatment and developed EZCast-NHT alloy, NHT is the abbreviation of Non-Heat Treatable.
EZCast-NHT alloy is an Al-Mg cast aluminum alloy. Alcoa can provide two products, one is A152, containing about 3% Mg; the other is A153, containing about 4% Mg. EZCast-NHT series alloys have excellent casting properties (hot cracking resistance), mechanical properties of F temper are comparable to Al-Si series die-casting aluminum alloys of T5/T6 temper, and good riveting properties.
EZCast-NHT series alloys are well suited for high pressure casting for the manufacture of structural components with complex shapes that require high performance, such as shock towers, beams, battery trays, frame nodes, motor housings, etc.