Die Casting – Setting up Manufacturing in China

The history: From humble origins to industrial domination

The year 1838 marked the invention of a small, hand-operated printing machine. Today, this simple machine is recognised as the foundation on which the industry rests. Die casting is considered the world’s most fundamental industry for its role in manufacturing and its support of several key industries – particularly the automotive and housing sectors.

In this blog, we trace the journey of the industry from its humble origins to its current market dominance.                 

It is the process of forming metal objects by injecting molten metal under high pressure into molds or cavities called dies. When the metal cools, it takes the shape of the die and solidifies. When the die is opened, the object that comes out is called the casting.

The process is one of the fastest and most inexpensive ways to mass-produce identical objects of uniform quality and often complicated shapes. The most common castings produced today are components for automobiles (cylinder heads, gearboxes), household goods (light fixtures, door knobs), machinery (air compressors, industrial pumps), furniture (cross feet for office chairs) and premium consumer goods (skincare product packaging).

Castings are mostly made from the alloys of non-ferrous metals (no iron content, hence softer, more malleable and rust-proof) such as zinc, copper, aluminium and magnesium, and sometimes lead, pewter and tin. The dies or moulds are usually fashioned from steel.

As mentioned earlier, the process was born in the printing industry of the mid-19th Century – a period when publishing boomed and printing was mechanised. And for the first three decades at least, it was used exclusively to produce moveable type for newspapers and books. It was only at the turn of the century that the world woke up to the many possibilities of the process and started applying it in other ways.

Here, we trace the history and evolution through a short timeline:

● 1838: The first equipment is invented – a manually-operated printing machine that uses an alloy of lead and tin to form letters

● 1846: Richard March Hoe comes out with the first successful Rotary Printing Press – a moving cylinder on which type is placed. It is capable of printing 8,000 sheets in an hour and is patented in 1847  

● 1849: The original hand-operated printing machine is patented, marking the first patent for the industry 

● 1886: The first Linotype machine is put to commercial use at the office of the New York Tribune. It works like a typewriter by using brass letter molds called matrices into which liquid lead is cast to produce lines of text

● 1890s onwards: Till now exclusive to printing, the process starts finding other uses 

● 1914: Zinc and aluminium replace lead and tin as favoured alloys, making for sturdier castings. Zinc is the easiest metal to cast while aluminium is known for its lightweight quality

● 1925: In his quest to make the perfect invisible hinge, Joseph Soss develops the Soss machine in the US. It is the first machine to enter the American market

● 1930s: Copper and magnesium (easy to machine) gain popularity as casting alloys. The addition of new material means an expanding range of products  

● 1966: Coinciding with the automotive industry’s growing reliance on the process, General Motors invents Acurad casting, which uses low-iron aluminium

● Today: After numerous improvements and advances, machines today are capable of producing large volumes of quality castings with flexible shapes, thin walls and high surface finish