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Suitable Production of thin walled Aluminum Prototype and

Small Series Castings for Body in White Applications

Joachim Gundlach, Jörg Detering

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Contents

• Company Information

• Starting Point - Requirements

• Integrated Casting Product and Process Development

• Moulding and Casting Process

• Summary and Perspectives

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Contents

Company Information

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Grunewald

Founded 1963

Employees 225

Production Sites 6

Locations 5

Main Business Units

• Casting Production

• Tooling (Automotive, Aerospace)

• NC-Machining

• Assembly

Locations

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Casting

Automotive Tooling

NC-Processing

Aerospace Tooling and Assembly

Company Profile

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Contents

Starting Point - Requirements

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Body in White Concept

SL-Class

Aluminium Castings

Aluminium Metal Sheets

Aluminium Profiles

44%

17%

8%

28%

3%

SL-Class

Daimler AG, SL-Class: Percentage of Materials

Steel

Others

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Daimler AG, SL-Class: Castings

• 34 Vacuum High Pressure Die Castings

• 2 Low Pressure Die Castings

Total weight of Castings: 110kg

Body in White Concept

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Mercedes-Benz AMG, SLS

Body in White Concept

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Starting Point - Requirements

Protoype and Pre-Series Casting Production

1. High Pressure Die Casting Geometry2. Specified Wall Thicknesses and Tolerances according to

Reference Point System (RPS)3. Mechanical Properties equivalent to Series4. Economical and in Time Production

Casting Geometries – Daimler AG

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Contents

Integrated Casting Product and Process Development

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Product Specifications

Material Properties

Alloy

Mould Material

Black wash

Gating and Feeding Technology

Cooling

Process Metallurgy

Crack test

X-Ray

Dimensional Metrology

Mechanical Properties

Dimensional Accuracy

Tolerances

Surface Quality

Quality Control

Casting Process Development

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mechanical properties

CAE - Development

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Low Pressure Sand Casting High Pressure Die Casting

CAE - Numerical Casting Simulation

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Process Tolerances

Process Flow and Dependencies

Pattern

shop

Foundry

Heat treatment

Post processing

Machining

Dimensional

tolerances

RPS

System

Product

Mechanical

properties

Quality control

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Contents

Moulding and Casting Process• Rapid Prototyping, Qualified Master Casting (QMC)

• Low Pressure Sand Casting

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Rapid Prototyping and QMC

Selective Laser Sintering of a

Polystyrene “lost Model”

Polystyrene Model Gating + Feeding

SystemMoulding Casting

Principle of Qualified Master Casting (QMC)

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Metrology of Polystyrene Model

Rapid Prototyping and QMC

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Qualified Master Casting - QMC

Metrology of Raw Casting

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CAD-Design of the Pattern, Example C-Pillar

Pattern Design

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Pattern Making

Manual Finishing after NC-ProcessingFoto: xxx

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Mould Production

Moulding

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Low Pressure Casting Technique- Crucible Volume 300 kg Al, 2 changeable Crucibles- Dynamic Pressure Control- Core Block - Sand Casting

Low Pressure Sand Casting

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Heat Treatment and QuenchimgWater and Air

Accuracy +/- 1K

Heat Treatment

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Straightening

Straightening

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Blasting Cabin

Blasting

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1.800 x 2.100 x 1.250 mm 1000 x 800 x 500 mm

NC – Machines (examples)

NC – finished Part Processing

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Assembly of e. g. Helicoils and Add-On Parts

Assembly

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Mercedes-Benz AMG, SLS – Roof Component

Pre-Series Casting

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Pre-Series Casting

Mercedes-Benz AMG, SLS – Door Component

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Daimler AG, SL – Roof Component

Pre-Series Casting

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Pre-Series Casting

Daimler AG, SL – C-Pillar

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Daimler AG, SL – Window Frame

Pre-Series Casting

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Pre-Series Casting

Daimler AG, SL – Crossbeam

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Body In White Joint, E-Car Application

Prototype Casting

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Contents

Summary and Perspectives

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Components: A-, B-, C-Pillars, Window Frames, Roof Components, Joint Components, Doors, Tail Gates, others

Part Dimensions: up to ca. 1500mm x 1200mm x 400mm

Geometrical Accuracy: +/- 0,8mm (Raw Part)

Wall Dimensions: > 2mm (+0,4mm/-0,2mm)

Casting Techniques: Sand Casting, Low Pressure Sand Casting, QMC Prototype Casting on Basis of Laser sintered Rapid Prototyping Polystyrene Models or Sand printed Moulds

Melting Capacity: ca. 300kg – 1000kg, Prototype Volumes are possible

Moulding Material: Cold-Box, Pep-Set, Furan Resin Sand, others

Surface Finish: correspondent to Moulding Material

Surface Treatment: Passivation, KTL, Ni-Plating, others

Tool Life Time: Plastic Tools 1 – 30000 (Material dependend, incl. Maintenance), Metal Tools x – 100.000 (Material dependend, incl. Maintenance)

Production Capacity: 1 - ca. 5000 Castings per Year

Further Technical Information

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Cost Effectiveness

Co

st E

ffe

ctive

ne

ss

Production No.1 1000

LPSC

HPDC

Complexity

Low Pressure Sand Casting (LPSC) / High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC)

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Grunewald GmbH & Co. KGDr. Joachim GundlachDr. Jörg Detering

Biemenhorster Weg 19D-46395 Bocholt

Phone +49 2871 2507 151

eMail j.gundlach@grunewald.de

Internet www.grunewald.de

Thank you for your Attention.