2010 Pace Award Winning Die Design
2010 Pace Award Winning Die Design
General Die & Engineering has always been, and continues to be, on the leading edge of the die cast tooling industry.
With today's deadlines getting shorter and shorter, you need a tooling supplier who can deliver a robust quality tool in more compressed timeframes. General Die & Engineering has a long history of meeting and exceeding our customers expectations in that regard. Our quality system allows us to record and track any and all changes during the tool build process, to insure your tool meets your precise expectations. Our knowledgeable engineering and design staff are ready to take your data and their experience to design a tool that meets your standards, in a timely fashion.
Industry First
In 2003, General Die & Engineering was the industry leader in designing and building the first 2 cavity die cast magnesium instrument panel tool in the world.
Largest Dies
The magnesium tailgate inner is the largest die cast magnesium closure panel globally. It not only saves substantial weight but it also functions as the primary structural load carrying component of the liftgate assembly meeting stringent crash performance requirements, integrates six separate parts into one inner panel casting, allows for increased passenger headroom, is 100% recyclable and meets the acceptance criteria for Class A die cast surfaces.
In 2008 we designed and built another first. This time it was a liftgate. The entire part cast in a single tool, just one of our challenges was to overcome 3 million pounds of shot pressure in a self locking tool.
Giga Press Tooling
Always looking toward the future, General Die & Engineering is investing resources in tooling for the Giga Press. Giga Press die casting is the most recent advance in aluminum die casting. Currently, Tesla has invested in four Giga Press machines manufactured by IDRA Group for their Model Y automobile.
These massive die casting machines range in size from 5,600 ton to 8,000 ton. They are the largest high pressure die casting machines in the world. A single machine weighs almost 1 million pounds. These machines take a 180 pound shot of molten aluminum and cycle into a complete part in 90 seconds. A single machine can produce 1,000 aluminum die casting per day. (source: Wikipedia)
Die Casting Machine #2 (DCM2) Giga Press during assembly at Tesla Factory in Fremont. The open space in the middle between the compression plattens holds the die casting mold halves, and separates apart to allow removal of the completed casting using a robot.
Photo Credit: Gabeincal, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
