Project Kick-Off

HoTKaST: A New Era for Cold Chamber Die Casting?

Another project recently had its kick off at the DAP: HoTKaST, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with over €750,000, aims to optimize cold chamber die casting by redesigning the filling chamber to significantly reduce resource use and CO2 emissions.

Researchers want to tackle common issues when it comes to die casting: Uneven heating causes problems in the filling chamber, like deformation and wear, which leads to frequent downtimes, high scrap rates and the excessive use of fossil lubricants.

HoTKaST will address these issues by making sure the temperature is distributed evenly and developing coatings that can withstand wear and tear on the chamber’s internal surfaces.

The intended solution:

Giving the filling chamber a makeover. The new design makes sure that the heating is evenly, which means less friction and a longer lifespan for the chamber and piston. The new chamber design and reduced friction could also cut down on fossil lubricant use and scrap rates a lot.

In the project high-speed laser cladding (HS-DED) will be used to create durable, metallurgically bonded coatings that can withstand high pressure and thermal stresses.

The project brings together some of the key players in the industry, including G-S-D Gerhard Schoch Druckgießtechnik GmbH & Co.KG, Aage GmbH, AMZ Weissenseer Präzisionsguss GmbH, and RWTH Aachen’s DAP.

Dieses Forschungs- und Entwicklungsprojekt wird durch das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) im Programm „KMU Innovativ – Ressourceneffizienz und Klimaschutz“ (Förderkennzeichen 033RK113B) gefördert und vom Projektträger Jülich (PTJ) betreut.

This research and development project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the program “KMU Innovativ – Resource Efficiency and Climate Protection” (funding code 033RK113B) and is supervised by Project Management Jülich (PTJ).