The Development Trend of Automotive Casting Components and Their Casting Technology

Casting is one of the oldest metal forming methods. Approximately, 15% to 20% of automobile parts are automotive casting components produced by different casting methods. And these automotive casting components are normally the key components and important structural components of the power system.

With the increasing requirements for energy saving and environmental protection as well as the reduction of the production costs of automotives, making full use of the advantages of casting forming has already become an indispensable part of car production. By integrating several original stamping, welding, forging and casting parts into integrated parts through reasonable design and structural optimization, the process of producing automotive casting components has been greatly improved, for the weight of these casting components is reduced and some unnecessary components are also removed from the production line. As a result, the remained automotive casting components are much lighter and have better performance.

At present, the main form of casting integral axle housing is to press seamless steel pipes at both ends of the axle housing as half-axle sleeves, and then fix them with pins to form the axle housing assembly.

The development trend of integration of automotive casting components is even more obvious in the development of non-ferrous alloy castings. In order to make full use of the integrative characteristics of the casting process, the high-pressure castings with integrated design such as the car door inner panel, seat frame, instrument panel frame, front-end frame and firewall have now made their entrance in the industry. And these newly developed castings are clearly significantly larger in size than the castings produced in the past. As a result, die casting machines of 4 000~5000 t or even larger tonnage are now needed for the further production.