toolroom - Aluminium Extruders - South Africa

Tool Room

Our tool room is equipped with two cnc machines, a wire cutting machine, two spark eroders, two lathes, a surface grinder and a manual milling machine. We use the Mastercam 5 program to do drawings of the profiles requested or according to a customer’s design. Tool steel is machined on the Lathe to the appropriate size to fit inside the press which will be used to extrude the said profile. After the customer approves the dimensions on the drawings and confirms an order, the cnc milling machine is programmed  to cut the die. We are able to cut between 40 and 50 dies per month.

After the die has been cut, together with the rest of the tooling, it is sent to a specialist Engineering company where  it is case hardened to a Rockwell hardness of between 47 and 50 HRC. The new die is brought back to the tool room and the wire cutting is done the cut actual shape of the profile which is the final process before the die can be used in the press. The die is placed in the oven, pre-heated and inserted into the press to run a sample of the new profile.  Dimensions are checked and the samples are given to our customer for final approval.

When the required quantity of a profile has been extruded the die is removed from the press and left to cool. The dies are then placed into a bath containing Caustic Soda to remove the aluminium left inside from extrusion process. After being rinsed, the dies are taken back to the tool room where they are cleaned and polished. More than one die is cut for profiles which are regularly extruded. This precaution is taken to prevent premature wearing on the tooling. When this occurs, the dimensions and tolerances are not acceptable. If these dies cannot be modified or corrected they are scrapped. To preserve the lifespan of the dies, it goes through a process which is called Amonia gas nitriding. This ensures that the bearing inside the die is preserved.