Global Giga Casting Congress
GIGA casting is starting to take off in all directions. On March 5th and 6th, the Global GIGA-CASTING Congress will be held in Kassel, Germany, at the local University. You can find the program here:
https://www.uni-kassel.de/maschinenbau/institute/produktionstechnik-und-logistik/fachgebiete/giessereitechnik/global-giga-casting-congress-2025/program
According to Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2024/09/03/the-gigacasting-question-innovation-vs-investment-in-auto-production/) the global die casting market is set to grow from $82.86 billion in 2024 to a staggering $112.14 billion by 2029 at a CAGR of 6.24%. This growth is driven by the demand for lightweight, high-strength castings to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
However, the Gigacasting industry is evolving even faster, with projections showing a meteoric rise to $2.6 billion by 2030. By then, more than 10 million vehicles are expected to feature large die cast parts, with electric vehicles leading the trend.
Casting warehouse at Tesla in Texas…..
Only one contribution in the program concerns tools, “Latest developments and solutions at MEGA/GIGA-HPDC molds, Siegfried Heinrich, Schaufler Tooling GmbH & Co. KG (DE)”. (https://schaufler.de/). Schaufler is basically the only traceable tool shop specializing in GIGA tools today in Europe.
The picture is from the tool shop website https://schaufler.de/ – the condition for producing such large molds is a 120-ton crane and a 200-ton tryout press. However, there is no mention of heat treatment. So, it remains a closely guarded secret. One can only assume that there is …
Today’s standard is already GIGA presses with a clamping force of up to 9,000 tons, but from the next image it does not end there. If the goal is to be 1 car = 1 part from HPDC technology, then they will need to build presses with a clamping force of up to 20,000 kg.
It can therefore only be assumed that these GIGA moulds made of H11 or H13 material will not be very suitable for this application, and for now the only material that can satisfy this requirement is Dievar from Uddeholm. To avoid the carbide nose and the bainite area, we must achieve cooling from the austenitizing temperature to 540 C in 18 minutes according to Nadca 207:2022. This can only be 100% guaranteed for bodies up to 200 mm thick. Given the CCT diagram of this steel, even a 300 mm cross-section will have a chance of good toughness and therefore resistance to thermal fatigue. With an insert size of 1000x1000x300 mm, this is a weight of up to 2.6 tons. However, inserts with a thickness greater than 300 mm will already be on the verge of hardenability.
Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend the congress, it conflicts with the spring vacation at school. I am sorry, I would really like to hear it. After all, the idea that in a brief time 10 million cars will be produced using this method per year suggests that this is a real trend. And it is not over yet…. maybe next time
Jiří Stanislav
February 1, 2025
