Casting Study: Automotive Shift Level

This shift lever connects the shifter and the gear in ZF automotive gearboxes. This part  was originally an aluminum cast part but required tapping and other secondary operations to meet the close tolerances. Thanks to the  to close collaboration with the customer, the part could be redesigned and optimized for zinc pressure die-casting. The new part doesn’t require any secondary operations to achieve the tolerances, has a shorter casting cycle, has 10x longer tool life, and weight was reduced 5%, leading to 30% cost savings on this part.
Total weight of the cast parts: 177 gr.

Reasons for choosing zinc alloy:
The client changed from aluminum to zinc pressure die-casting with ZP5 because of its ability to cast very narrow tolerances without additional operations leading to a reduced cost for this part.