December 14, 2006 — Mercury Castings, a division of Mercury Marine, granted a license to Top Die Casting Co., South Beloit, IL, to operate Mercury's Slurry-on-Demand casting technology.
The Slurry-on-Demand process uses a patented slurry-making unit that stirs and cools molten aluminum until the metal achieves a desired consistency. Then, the slurry is transferred directly to the diecast shot end and injected into the die cavity. Mercury Castings says that compared with standard diecasting processes, its technique offers significant improvements to casting quality, process cycle time, and die life.
Mercury Castings, Fond du Lac, WI, designs and produces aluminum castings for marine and automotive applications. As a subsidiary of Mercury Marine it provides components for recreational marine propulsion engines. Mercury Castings produces aluminum, iron, and stainless steel castings, and holds more than 25 aluminum product/process-related patents. It recently began sales and distribution of its patented Mercalloy ductile diecast alloys under license to Alcan Inc.
Mercury Castings uses Slurry-on-Demand to cast high-quality marine components and non-marine parts.
As part of the new licensing agreement, Mercury is providing technical support and training to Top Die Casting, and is delivering the slurry-making unit in a package that makes virtually any diecast machine convertible to the Slurry-on-Demand casting process.
Dave Olson, general manager of Mercury Castings, explained: "The team at Top Die Casting has seen first hand how this process will benefit them and their customers through improvements in quality, process capability and cost. To evaluate the capabilities of the process, Top Die Casting sent us one of their most challenging dies. Without any die modifications, we were able to quickly make parts that are virtually porosity-free using Slurry-on-Demand."
"We are going to be able to provide the benefits of Slurry-on-Demand to our customers immediately," stated Gerald McCurdy, v.p. of Top Die Casting . "Our team is well prepared to support a broad spectrum of die-casting applications, from industrial and hydraulic to filtration and consumer products."