KAC Values User-friendliness of Machine

Korea Al Casting Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "KAC"), founded in 1992, specializes in manufacture of automotive aluminum die cast parts and now has become one of Korea’s top companies of the aluminum die casting industry in virtue of its innovative technology and excellent product quality over the past 24 years. In Korea, KAC has two production bases for casting and mold. Its clients include MANDO, BOSCH, Autoliv, TRW, MAHLE and other world’s top 100 auto part makers, of which the largest is MANDO, Korea's largest auto part manufacturer, as well as Hyundai and Kia's most important supplier. MANDO contributes 68% of KAC’s sales.

Thanks to those well-known customers that are involved in international business, KAC not only has a branch in Indonesia, but also plans to build new production bases in Poland and South Korea to realize the strategy of global business development.

Produce steering shafts of high difficulty

In the field of auto parts, KAC mainly produces engine blocks and covers, gearbox housings, gear chambers, clutches etc. Steering shaft is one of KAC’s most important products. The performance of steering shaft, a key part of a car's steering system, is directly related to the traffic and personal safety. In the automotive industry standards, there are up to 16 performance requirements and test methods on the steering shaft.

The steering shaft is of a long tubular shape and has strict requirements on strength and high density. It is very difficult to produce such a part.

KAC’s official said that whether a steering shaft of a car can work under high temperature for a long time is an important criterion that automakers use to judge the quality of steering shaft. So the mold is specially designed by KAC’s R&D team for internal cooling of the shaft and to make the part more durable.

In KAC’s workshop, Yizumi DM900 is the only die casting machine that manufactures steering shafts. Targeting those complicated die cast parts, Yizumi’s technical team improves the configuration and design of core puller and clamping cylinder. In addition, the function of mold cooling water temperature detection and alarm is added to ensure the stability and higher passing rate of the products.

Work out Korean standards

"Yizumi has great respect for customer opinions,” KAC Vice President Mr Ja-Yong Koo said. “Machine manufacturers usually insist on their own design, but Yizumi can really listen to voice of customer and meet customer needs.”

Before the cooperation between KAC and Yizumi that began in 2010, KAC had been using Japanese die casting machines like Ube and Toshiba. To gain market share from the Japanese competitors, Yizumi’s technical team had made more efforts. They went to customer’s factory and talked with customer to know the user habits and needs. Then Yizumi’s engineers worked out specific machine standards for their Korean customer based on the standard machine. More than 80 standards involving the hydraulic system, program design and alarm light were clearly listed.  

After the upgrade, Yizumi’s standard machine for KAC became as human-centered as the Japanese counterparts. “Although it is very difficult to make a big change in the machine structure, we try our best to make improvements in a lot of details and programs so that our machine is line with KAC’s habits that were early developed when they used Japanese machine,” said Huang Jiahua, one of Yizumi’s engineers.

For KAC, they pay great attention to the user-friendliness and convenience of a machine. “Making a standard machine is not difficult for a manufacturer and maybe it takes only 2 or 3 months. But the customer will use the machine for 10 years. If he doesn’t adapt to the new machine, he may feel bad when using the machine in the future. Taking such a possibility into consideration, Yizumi adds the Korean features to the machine.”

Provide resident engineer service

The Korean die casting market attaches great importance to service. The quality and provider of after-sales service is the first thing that customers are concerned about when meeting a manufacturer.

In fact, Japanese machines exist in the Korean market for over 50 years, but Japanese manufacturers neither directly communicate with customers nor maintain machines. Korean customers usually solve the problems through the sales agents and local third-party service companies.

From 2015, Yizumi dispatched an engineer resident in Korea to give timely feedback to local customers and solve their problems in time. In case of any failure of the machine, KAC’s workers can consult with Yizumi’s engineer on the phone and the engineer can also arrive at the site in 24 hours to deal with the problem.

"Although the sales agent and third-party service company can maintain the machines, they did not get involved in design and they may have a blind spot on some aspects. In contrast, engineer from the manufacturer is definitely familiar with the machine. Because of the service directly offered by the manufacturer, we feel more confident in choosing Yizumi,” said Mr Ja-Yong Koo.