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Carbon long fiber reinforced aluminum matrix composites are promising materials for applications in highly stressed lightweight structures. The use of continuous fibers as reinforcement structure offers the potential to increase the mechanical properties tremendously compared to the pure light metal alloy. The main problem for a more widespread utilization of metal matrix composites is that established manufacturing processes like gas pressure infiltration or squeeze casting are economically not attractive and cannot be upscaled for serial production. This paper shows the development of a production technique for the infiltration of carbon fiber yarns with aluminum using a conventional cold chamber die casting machine. Thereby the influence of the process parameters on the infiltration behavior is investigated. Of high importance are the plunger velocity and the temperature of the die, the melt, and the carbon fiber preform. Additionally, results of numerical simulations are presented and compared to the experimental findings.The demand for high-performance lightweight structures in transportation, machine building, and plant engineering is rising. Compared to conventional monolithic materials like polymers or light metals, continuous fiber reinforced composites can tolerate much higher loads and offer higher potential to improve mechanical properties than other reinforcements like discontinuous fibers or particles. The advantages of employing a metal matrix rather than the usual polymer one consist in higher stiffness and compressive strength as well as better elevated temperature capabilities. Therefore, continuous fiber reinforced metal matrix composites are ideally suited for applications in highly stressed lightweight structures, especially under additional thermal loads.The main problem hampering a more widespread utilization of metal matrix composites is the limited ability to produce such structures. Established manufacturing processes which are based on the melt infiltration of long fiber preforms are the gas pressure infiltration technique [1][2][3] and the squeeze casting process. [4,5] The gas pressure infiltration process allows the manufacture of highly complex components, but in economical aspects this process is not suitable for serial production because of the complex procedure and the extensive process cycle times. In contrast, squeeze casting is characterized by short cycle times, but the complexity of the preform and the part geometry is limited. In summary, these manufacturing processes are economically not attractive and cannot be upscaled for serial production.A good alternative for the fabrication process would be the high pressure die casting technology. It is characterized by short cycle times, high production rates, high level of automation, and the possibility to obtain thin-walled and complex part geometries because of the high melt velocity. However, previous studies for the manufacture of metal matrix composites by high pressure die casting are almost solely limited to the infiltrat...

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