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Mar 05, 2025

Generate more value from aluminum die casting? Be faster!

Related Vendors Anyone who procures cast parts today wants them delivered fully machined. As a single component or as a fully assembled module. Aluwag AG in Niederbüren is—as the name

Related Vendors

Anyone who procures cast parts today wants them delivered fully machined. As a single component or as a fully assembled module. Aluwag AG in Niederbüren is—as the name suggests—specialized in aluminum cast parts and casts and machines around 4,400 tons a year. In an average two-shift five-day week, this amounts to a volume of a good 25,385 kg per day—pure series production, where "time" is a decisive factor for economic success. A Chiron FZ 16 W stands for high productivity and added value in the machining process.

With about 100 employees, Aluwag AG is not exactly an industry giant worldwide, but size is known to be relative: In Switzerland, the company in Niederbüren in the canton of St. Gallen is positioned among the larger SMEs. With over 50 years of casting experience in Europe and of course in Switzerland, they have made a name for themselves for everything that can be cast from aluminum. A new technology that Aluwag is working on is the gas injection process, which enables, among other things, a reduction in assembly complexity and substitutes attachments, seals, and joining and assembly work. But more on that later.

In daily business, every order at Aluwag goes through a defined process: First, there is the analysis of material, costs, and feasibility, the development of casting concepts with different alloys and subsequent processes. And once the order has been placed, the design of die-casting tools follows. Then comes the production, meaning the casting itself, with a unique decentralized melting concept thanks to their own furnace technology. Die-casting machines with clamping forces from 530 to 2200 tons are available in Niederbüren. After casting, there are various downstream processes: heat treatment, vibratory finishing, mechanical machining, including assembly. Production batches range from 300 to 10,000 pieces and, at the end of the chain, before finishing, have the most influence on unit costs, namely through the productivity of individual machining processes.

Although oil pans for combustion engines, battery housings for their electric counterparts, blade holder mountings for slicers, and gearbox housings for 600-HP ship engines all have the same basic material, namely aluminum, they differ significantly in alloy, geometry, finishing, and especially in machining. This may be due to their dimensions and material properties or the quantity and cycle time. The ideal production flow and the corresponding system are already defined and calculated in process planning. It is only with optimal equipment that it is possible to win orders in the mass market of the automotive industry.

For example, between 5 and 7 different products are machined on a Chiron FZ 18 W (W for change table) from 2003. Since it is now amortized, a replacement was necessary. This is where Pascal Knill comes into play. He has been with Aluwag since 2013 and took over the management of mechanical machining three years ago. His path there led him through metrology, material research, and quality management within the company—tasks and time enough to gather comprehensive competence and experience in the process chain. "Since the greatest value creation lies in the machining of cast parts, we were naturally eager to find solutions that not only adequately equip us for the existing product range but also position us for future requirements," Knill summarizes his task.

The previously mentioned FZ 18 W was one of the machines on Knill's list that was to be replaced by a new machine. There were two main criteria to consider in the specification. Point 1: The products currently machined on the 18, including programs and fixtures, should be transferable to the new machine. Point 2: Productivity should be significantly increased; the more, the better.

Since the performance had been convincing over the decades, the inquiry naturally also went to Chiron in Tuttlingen, specifically to Simon Heim, who has been responsible for the Chiron Group in Switzerland since 2019. Incidentally, Aluwag is his first customer that he has managed in his new role. It would have been simplest for Chiron to sell a new 18. But as the saying goes, "new brooms sweep clean, but the old ones know the corners." Simon Heim is by no means an old broom, but he is an old hand in casting. For over 16 years, he learned and did virtually everything in the aluminum casting world that one should know and be able to do in this field. For this reason, he gave extra thought to fulfilling points 1 and 2 in the specification of his "first" customer, namely to make the critical value creation at the end of the process more secure and productive. His machine of choice from Chiron's product range is an FZ 16 W. Although the model number is smaller than 18, it brings everything the customer demands. The W variant with the change table was in any case a given.

All products from ongoing processes of the 18 can be transferred 1:1. The spindle now runs up to 20,000 min-1 instead of 12,000 and reaches top speed in 1.4 seconds. With the high dynamics in axis movements and the stable portal design, Heim was certain that the FZ 16 W was the right machine for Aluwag. However, the price is about 20 percent higher than that of a new 18. "That we decided in favor of Chiron among the offers is partly due to the good experiences," recalls Knill, "and partly due to the promised performance, namely unit cost calculation. The higher investment costs were initially daunting. But today—just over a year after the first chip was cut—the 16 machines 30 percent faster compared to its predecessor."

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Why Aluwag did not automate the FZ 16 W with a robot, Simon Heim answers: "Of course, we jointly examined this, and there was certainly no lack of automation possibilities and expertise at Chiron." Knill continues: "It was and simply is not practical with this diverse range of parts, addressing employee qualification and availability, which are as important as the economic considerations. All in all, we were not convinced to switch from human to robot. The way the 16 stands with us, it is the right solution for us. It is faster and delivers the parts to the customer more quickly."

When asked how the business outlook for 2025 appears for Heim and Knill, one would wish for more cheerful faces. In a nutshell: both companies are still feeling the sometimes drastic declines from the automotive sector, and the framework conditions, which have not really improved over the past five years, do not make daily practice any easier. Nevertheless, Knill and Heim see their companies well-positioned in the competition and point to specific projects and innovations being realized in both old and new markets.

At Aluwag, this is the new gas injection technology mentioned at the beginning, which "enables completely new designs of aluminum die-casting," according to Thomas Bottlang, Senior Sales Manager at Aluwag. He explains: "Gas injection casting is an innovative casting technology in six steps that can represent, for example, geometries that cannot be demolded, enables design advantages, and ultimately saves costs. We have produced a total of five test and pre-series projects with the new gas injection process and, after almost five years of intensive collaboration with Foundry Technology Aalen on a research level and Surtechno, a tool-making company, are almost at the goal. We are currently looking for customers with whom we can transfer development projects to series production with the new technology."

As soon as Bottlang comes home with orders, Pascal Knill will have to accommodate the series in his production. The cue for Simon Heim on the situation: "The Chiron Group is like many other machine tool manufacturers—it could simply be better. As for my area, Switzerland, I have a good feeling when I look at my ongoing inquiries and projects." And with a wink towards Pascal Knill, Heim mentions the two machines from the series 22, which are essentially just waiting for the starting signal. "It shouldn't be up to me," says Knill.

Aluwag AG employs 100 people at its headquarters in Niederbüren (Switzerland), specializes in aluminum casting, and is a technology leader in automotive, mechanical engineering, medical technology, and other industries. With 50 years of casting experience in Europe and Switzerland, Aluwag has made a name for itself for everything that can be cast from aluminum using the die-casting process. Long-standing expertise in metallurgy, engineering, and manufacturing makes Aluwag a provider of well-thought-out complete solutions—from the first idea to the finished product. Comprehensive process knowledge in the processing of primary and secondary materials is continuously developed and improved to meet market requirements in terms of reproducibility and cost.

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