Automotive - Toyota UK body panel die repair

By responding quickly to a request from Toyota UK to carry out metalocking repairs to a fractured body panel dieMetalock Engineering enabled the pressing line to get back into operation with minimum downtime.

Using their expertise Metalock’s engineers were able to perform initial repairs to the cast iron die sufficient toallow it to be put back on line to clear a backlog of body panels. In total there was 4 metres of fracture to berepaired which Metalock did in two stages. As much as possible was completed in the first three days by workinground-the-clock on 12-hour shifts to get the press back on line. Five days later the Metalock team returned on aday shift basis to complete the task.

Part of the repair involved the application of special steel strengthening plates designed to fit into the toolpockets to connect to the internal ribs and become an integral part of the 75mm thick casting.

The Metalock process is accepted as a method of repairing cracked and broken castings across a wide range ofindustries. One of the main advantages of the process is that it is heat free and can be carried out either on site,as in the Toyota case, or in one of the company’s workshops. Fractures are jig drilled across the crack to acceptmulti-dumbell shaped keys manufactured from a ductile high tensile nickel alloy. The keys are peened into theapertures to become integral with the parent metal. Holes are then drilled and tapped along the line of thefracture and filled with studs, each one positioned to overlap its neighbour. This combination of keys and studsproduces a rigid and pressure tight repair and final peening and hand dressing completes the operation.

Following the repair, the Metalock team was congratulated by the tool and die department at Toyota UK on itsco-operation, professionalism and technical support which had achieved an excellent and permanent repairfollowing this major die smash.

The bodypanel die needed 4 metres of fracturerepairs which Metalock carried out in two stages.