STEEL CASTINGS FOR ALL INDUSTRIES, HIGH INTEGRITY, LOW & MEDIUM VOLUME MANUFACTURERS

MICRALLOY - Tool Steel Alloy;

High performance components for pressure die-casting machines and Zinc crucibles

Micron Alloys have for many years been producing cast components in Tool Steel such as melt pots, crucibles and goosenecks for the pressure die-casting industry.

Tool Steel offers hugely significant benefits over Cast Iron :-

Molten Zinc has an aggressive erosive and corrosive effect on even the tightest grained Cast Iron, these alloys attack the graphite flakes through oxidation opening up the surface allowing further penetration by the molten material. Once this initial penetration has taken place there is a rapid degradation of the Cast Iron resulting in significant and often intolerable ferrite pick-up in the melt bath together with other impurities.

Cast Iron has reasonable thermal conductivity but even thermal fatigue can cause pot failure on high volume zinc machines (relatively low temperature) in as little as 6 months.

MICRALLOY, a Cr Mo V Steel, is a high performance, hot-work tool steel, possessing good strength, impact resistance, hardness and oxidation resistance and excellent elevated temperature properties. This material simply does not suffer erosion from molten Zinc alloys.

It is unlikely that MICRALLOY pots will ever require replacing. Currently we have pots in hot chamber Zinc machines which have lasted for 14 years and are still in service!

Click thumbnails below to compare Micrographs:

    Micrograph showing the close grain structure of Micralloy                                                       

    Micrograph of Grey Iron showing graphite flakes