Test equipment and methodology for die material service life evaluation

Abstract

Dies used in the non ferrous die casting process, have a limited service life due to the damage effect by surface cracking appearance. These cracks are mainly produced by thermal fatigue, which are promoted by a repeated heating and cooling process through working cycles. The existing demand to improve materials to extend the die’s service life leads to the development of new equipments to test the material behaviour. INASMET-TECNALIA in collaboration with FEAF (Spanish Federation of the Foundry Associations), has developed a testing machine to evaluate the thermal fatigue behaviour of steels used to manufacture dies. This testing machine is able to test forty samples simultaneously, getting a remarkable advantage in regard to previous developed test equipment. The versatility of heating and cooling system makes possible to test all kind of materials in very different thermal fatigue conditions.