Sullivan Die Casting

Case History #1 - Sullivan Die Casting: "We were losing money on automotive castings. We had major quality and flash problems. Tymac's SuperShot controls solved the problem completely."

- Jim Sullivan

Sullivan Die Casting was having trouble with producing a thin-wall side view automotive mirror bracket. It required buffing, powder coating, and baking. The part was made in a conventional 650-ton hot chamber machine, operated at 106 shots an hour. with scrap levels averaging 18%. Defects were caused primarily by poor surface, and blistering due to porosity.

After a SuperShot system was fitted to the machine, scrap was reduced by 75%, with a new scrap rate of 4.5%. So much of the buffing labor was eliminated that the buffing process, formerly located in a separate plant, was scaled down enough to take place in the die casting plant.

But that was only one aspect of the improvements generated by the SuperShot. Fill time was reduced, so the machine was able to operate at 142 shots an hour. Because of the rapid deceleration in the last stage of the cavity-filling process, flash decreased as well, despite the reduced fill time: from 0.12 inches, down to 0.02. Material savings from reduced flash alone amounted to roughly 40,000 pounds annually. Die life was extended by 50%. Die maintenance went from every 6-8 weeks...to yearly.

Perhaps the most obvious savings benefit, incorporating many of the others, comes from the dramatic increase in the number of good castings shipped: this went from 257,040 to 401,122 - an increase of 56%.