Most of the cost of an aluminum casting is decided at the design table, long before the mold is cut. A few disciplined DFM choices routinely remove 20–30% from both tooling and piece price.
Here is the five-point checklist our engineers run on every incoming drawing — apply it before quoting and you will see the difference in the number.
Key Points
- 1. Draft: 1–1.5° per side minimum on walls perpendicular to the parting line — no-draft features mean slides or secondary machining.
- 2. Wall thickness: keep walls as uniform as possible; heavy sections create shrinkage porosity. Design to our recommended range and let the alloy do the work.
- 3. Core & parting: orient cores and parting line to minimize slides; every side-action adds tooling cost and cycle time.
- 4. Tolerance: relax unspecified tolerances to ±0.1 mm or looser; keep tight calls only on function-critical features.
- 5. Machining allowance: on cored or as-cast faces, keep 1–2 mm stock and let CNC hold the true position — cheaper than casting tight.