Premature cracking of dies for aluminum alloy die casting

Die casting AluminiumAn interesting paper of Bogdan Pawlowski, AGH University of Science and Technologie in Krakow, published in « Archives of Metallurgy and Materials » :

Two identical dies for aluminum alloy die-casting failed prematurely because of a number of parallel cracks on the working surface. These cracks were of a mechanical nature related to incorrect microstructural banding orientation of the die core and related to improper heat treatment. The root cause of premature cracking of dies was improper heat treatment (temper embrittlement).

More at :  http://imim.pl/files/archiwum/Vol4_2013/40.pdf