Molten metal/die interaction: Die soldering

In high-pressure die-casting foundry of the aluminium alloys, the interaction between the molten metal and the steel die plays a key role to form surface defects. These are the result of geometric changes on the die surface caused by erosion, soldering and thermal fatigue phenomena. Among all, die soldering is one of the main causes of surface defects in diecastings. This phenomenon leads to the formation of intermetallic phases on the surface of the die, over which the liquid initially solders and then detaches partially and locally, thus leaving defects with different size on the final castings. In this work, the prediction of the increase of the soldered layer has been experimentally and numerically studied by means of a numerical process simulation software. The numerical results have shown a good agreement with the experimental data, thus making the implemented numerical model successfully applicable to industry.