Follow each casting from alloy ingot to shot, trim and leak test.

A die casting cell is fast and unforgiving. A furnace holds molten alloy, a machine fires it into a steel die in seconds, and a trim press removes runners and overflows. A hundred castings an hour leave the cell. Small shifts in die temperature, spray or metal quality show up as porosity or cold shuts.

Aluminium die casting company software records the melt, the die and the shot count beside each lot. The quality room, the toolroom and the machining line read the same casting record.

A customer releases a weekly call-off for housings, covers and brackets. The planner books a machine of the right tonnage, a die from the rack and an alloy lot, and checks that the die has not passed its shot limit. The furnace crew melts ingot with returned runners, degasses, skims and takes a sample for chemistry. A casting machine is warmed with trial shots until the die is stable.

Once running, the operator sprays the die, extracts the shot and drops it to the trim press. Runners, biscuits and overflows go back to the remelt. Inspectors check dimensions, look for porosity and send samples for X-ray. Many castings go on to a machining line, a deburring bay, impregnation or a pressure test. Each step is signed on a route card. Passed castings are counted into crates.