What Advantages Can Zinc offer over Other Metals or Plastics?

Zinc is an element that has certain characteristics that when refined and processed is an excellent choice for making castings and coatings. Zinc offers many benefits that lend themselves to the die casting industry. Zinc is lighter in weight, offers significant reduction in wear and tear to the molds used which extends the life of the casting mold, the material itself is more cost-effective in specific applications as compared to aluminum, plastic, or most cast irons.

Zinc material is categorized by a series of alloys that when used in die casting offer an exceedingly high strength which means thinner Parts can be thinner walls on the castings can be produced. zinc also melts at a lower temperature which makes the liquid form of the metal more vicious and enables it to better fill smaller details with the mold cavity meaning it can go into tighter corners and more details compared to other materials. because zinc melts at a lower temperature it also solidifies at a much faster rate than other metals this helps reduce production time and enables more products to be made in a shorter amount of time than other metals.

Because zinc produces a better net shaped product details like threading can be directly cast into the product and thus reduce secondary operations like machining or even assembly, this helps reduce overall manufacturing costs and production time.

Zinc also offers a longer to life for the molds used in the casting in fact a typical zinc mold can last 10 times longer than an aluminum mold because zinc has fewer abrasive qualities and a lower melting temperature which does less damage to the tooling enabling it to last for a longer life cycle and reduces mold replacement costs.

When to Consider Using Zinc?

The materials used for developing a new product are selected at the design phase. This is where zinc should be considered as the material for use in manufacturing the product.

Zinc is not perfect for all applications, but it is well worth the investigation to see if it can reduce cost or improve quality or reduce the amount of secondary operations in producing a new product. The podcast is an interview with Dave Magner from DECO products (a leading zinc die caster in Iowa) that explains the advantages of zinc die casting in the manufacturing process and the types of products that zinc is best suited for. 

Many Thanks to Dave Magner | Deco Products - https://decoprod.com/

What Is Small Business Talks

For over 25 years, I have worked with small businesses across the country to develop strategic digital marketing plans for their business, along the way I have met and worked with some interesting people with some great ideas or stories about how met the challenges of being a small business or marketing themselves. I created this blog and pod casts to share their stories in their own words with other small businesses to help provide solutions to challenges we all face.

These businesses range from B2B manufacturing companies to commercial retail in just about every kind of small business you can imagine. I felt it was best to let them talk about their solutions, ideas or innovations so that others can learn and benefit from their successes.

I hope you find the posts informative, enlightening, and entertaining and hope you will visit their websites listed if you like the article. I also value your comments and suggestions and encourage you to post them.  

You can also hear the accompanying podcasts at Small Business Talks Podcasts

Thank you,

Neal Rabogliatti