Environment

Design Dies: Gating Methods

The gate is the portion of the runner system that feeds the liquid copper from the runner into the cavity. There are two techniques used for the gating copper rotors:

Edge gating
Pin gating

7.6.1 Edge Gating

Most of the copper rotors prototyped by the ICA/CDA group utilized edge gating. As shown in the schematic drawing of Figure 7.6.1.1, the edge gating system connects the runner to the outside edge of the end ring with a series of individual gates. Trials performed by the ICA/CDA team showed that this was a very successful technique for gating copper rotors.

Figure 7.6.1.1: Schematic drawing showing a runner system for a copper rotor incorporating edge gating

7.6.2 Pin Gating

An alternate technique of gating rotors is to use a series of pin gates, which feed the liquid copper directly into the end ring. Although the ICA/CDA team has less experience with gating copper rotors in this manner, the pin gating technique is widely used for the die-casting of aluminum rotors.