The Swedish premium car brand Volvo Cars has purchased two Carat 840 die-casting cells for its factory in Torslanda, Sweden. The Carat 840, along with Carat 920, Bühler’s largest die-casting solutions, were launched in 2021. 

In October 2021, Bühler launched the Carat 840 and the Carat 920 with locking forces of up to 92,000 kilonewtons (kN). With these machines, Volvo can produce structural castings for automotive body in white assemblies, known as megacastings. 

“Megacasting is of utmost importance for the entire die-casting industry,” said Cornel Mendler, Managing Director of Bühler Die Casting. “Megacasting gives the trend towards structural casting another push by extending the range of applications to complete body sections with the use of the new large Carat solutions with up to 92,000 kN locking force.

Volvo Cars is among the first carmakers to adopt the megacasting process. Megacastings reduce complexity in production by enabling between 70 to 100 parts to be replaced by a single die-cast part. These single-piece castings will generally be produced close to the automotive assembly line, which allows for better integration and reduced transport. Aluminum castings have the potential to be almost CO2 neutral, when using low CO2 aluminum alloys and biogas for the melting furnaces. The aluminum that goes into overflows can be remelted directly and reused in the die-casting cell, thereby avoiding transport and recycling. Thinking a step further, the usage of lighter aluminum parts can reduce the energy consumption of the cars over their entire lifecycle.