casting process has opened up a whole new industry for the company. “High-powered LEDs are the
future of the lighting industry,” Leon- ard said. “[In addition to the Mag- Werks applications], we’ve prototyped several military parts that are being developed. And as far as we know, only two investment casting sources in the U.S. can do magnesium.” Te company’s main customers in the
medical industry manufacture prosthetics and medical equipment. Ziemba noted that some exciting magnesium innova- tions are developing within that field. “We also do a lot of prototype work for GM and Ford,” Leonard said. Magne- sium is used in many aircraft parts, and Aristo-Cast has done some interesting work in propulsion parts. “I read an interesting fact:
If you can cut 500 pounds off a commercial airliner, it will save one quarter of a million dollars in fuel over a year,” Ziemba said. “There are a lot of exciting things happening with magnesium.”
Looking Ahead to Production When in high-volume produc-
tion, the MagWerks LED lamps most likely will be injection molded, not investment cast. Thixotropic injection molding is a semi-solid diecasting process in which magne- sium slurry is injected into a steel die. Advantages include long die and chamber life, fine-grained castings with few defects and minimal loss of metal fed to the machine. One of Aristo-Cast’s strengths is
its ability to produce prototypes that match the production design that would be used for high volumes. “Not only can we meet or exceed the physi- cal properties that would be obtainable by Tixomolding or regular diecast- ing, but we can exactly duplicate what they’re going to do as far as the tooling is concerned,” Ziemba said. Depending on the part, Aristo-
Cast can produce an investment cast product at 20% of the tooling cost of a diecast tool. MagWerks customer Sealink Inter-
national bought aluminum lamps prior to working with Pickholz. “We presented the [magnesium]
November 2012 MODERN CASTING | 33
technology and convinced them to develop a concept and proto- type,” he said. Three years later, the companies’ first LED lamp has been through the step-by-step process of development, prototyping and pro- duction validation products. Cur- rently, the lamp is being evaluated by major car manufacturers.
Steel and aluminum are large players in the automotive industry, and Pick- holz noted the challenge of presenting an entirely new product to clients. “Tere are a lot of misconceptions
surrounding magnesium, such as that it burns, costs a lot and is very hard to get,” Pickholz said. “So you have a very steep learning curve that you
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