Levers, handles and actuating arms
Operating levers, clamp handles and linkage arms, cast with a ribbed section for stiffness and a machined pivot bore, usually with a pressed-in steel bush so the wear surface is not cast aluminum.
Custom die cast mechanical components
Die Cast Mechanical Components
Die cast mechanical components are the aluminum parts that do not belong to a standard family: levers, covers, plates, pulleys, manifold bodies, end caps, flanges, adapter plates and handles. CharMax Precision casts them to customer drawings in A380, ADC12, A360 and A413 aluminum, from 20 g to 12 kg, at annual volumes of 500 to 500,000 parts.
In short
Die cast mechanical components are the aluminum parts that do not belong to a standard family: levers, covers, plates, pulleys, manifold bodies, end caps, flanges, adapter plates and handles. CharMax Precision casts them to customer drawings in A380, ADC12, A360 and A413 aluminum, from 20 g to 12 kg, at annual volumes of 500 to 500,000 parts.
There is no catalogue behind this page. Every part starts as your 2D drawing and 3D model, receives a written design for manufacturability review, and then gets a dedicated steel die. The review is where the value sits: we mark up wall thickness, draft, radii and parting line, state which features should be machined rather than cast, and price the result before any steel is cut.
The second thing worth asking for is a part consolidation review. Assemblies that arrive as three machined pieces and six fasteners very often come back as one casting, and the saving usually shows up in assembly labour and in the tolerance stack rather than in raw material cost. Send the assembly drawing rather than the individual part drawings if you want that assessed.
Capability at a glance
| Typical parts | Levers, covers, plates, pulleys, manifold bodies, end caps, flanges, handles |
|---|---|
| Alloys | A380, ADC12, A360, A413 and aluminum-silicon grades |
| Part weight | 20 g to 12 kg per casting |
| Part envelope | Up to 700 × 500 × 300 mm |
| Machine range | 160 to 1,250 tons of cold chamber clamping force |
| Wall thickness | 1.5 mm typical, 1.0 mm achievable on small parts |
| As-cast tolerance | ±0.1 mm for the first 25 mm |
| Machined tolerance | ±0.02 mm on critical features |
| As-cast surface | Ra 1.6 to 3.2 µm |
| Finishes | Shot blast, powder coat, paint, chromate, polish, anodize |
| Annual volume | 500 to 500,000+ parts |
| Lead times | 25-40 days tooling, 15-25 days production |
What we mean by die cast mechanical components
Most parts we quote are not motor housings, sealed enclosures, brackets or heat sinks. They are the ordinary mechanical hardware inside a machine: the lever that operates a clamp, the cover over a belt drive, the plate that carries a bearing block, the pulley on a tensioner, the manifold that distributes air to four cylinders, the end cap that closes a cylinder tube. This page exists for those parts.
What they have in common is that die casting suits them for the same reasons it suits anything else. They are needed in production quantities, they have a three-dimensional form with bosses, ribs and pockets that would be slow to machine, and only a few features on each one need real accuracy. Cast the shape and machine the interfaces, and the piece price is typically 50 to 80% below machining the same geometry from billet above 5,000 parts a year.
What they do not have in common is a single set of design rules, which is why this page is built around the review process rather than around one geometry. The rules that apply to your part depend on whether it is loaded, sealed, cosmetic, precision-located or all four.
Covers and access panels
Belt guards, gearbox covers and inspection panels, ribbed rather than thickened so they stay flat, with cast-in fastener bosses and often a cast gasket or seal channel.
Plates and adapter plates
Mounting and transition plates carrying two different bolt patterns, cast near net shape with cast-in pockets for weight relief and machined only where flatness or hole position is specified.
Pulleys, sheaves and rollers
Belt and cable pulleys cast close to final profile, with the bore, keyway and any groove finished on a lathe or machining centre. Near-net-shape casting removes most of the material that turning from bar would have to cut away.
Manifold and distribution bodies
Pneumatic and low-pressure hydraulic manifolds with cored internal passages, port faces machined flat, ports tapped, and every unit leak tested. A360 is specified where the body has to be pressure tight.
End caps, flanges and closures
Cylinder end caps, tube closures and pipe flanges with a cast gasket groove or O-ring seat, a machined register that locates the part concentrically, and a machined sealing face.
Built to your drawing, not selected from a catalogue
Quoting starts with a 3D model in STEP, IGES, X_T, SLDPRT or native CAD, plus a 2D drawing that marks critical dimensions, tolerances, surface finish, alloy and inspection requirements. We can quote from a 3D model alone, but without a drawing telling us which features are critical to function we have to assume they all are, and that produces a higher price than the part needs.
Pricing and a written DFM report come back within 24 to 48 hours. The report is issued with the quotation and before any commitment, and every item in it states the cost or risk consequence so you can decide what to accept. An NDA is signed before files are reviewed, and tooling is dedicated to your part for the life of the program.
From approval, production tooling takes 25 to 40 days depending on complexity and cavity count, T1 samples follow 5 to 7 days later, and production runs 15 to 25 days per batch including machining, finishing and inspection. Repeat orders on proven tooling ship in 15 to 20 days.
| Check | What we look for | Typical change requested |
|---|---|---|
| Wall thickness | Uniform 2 to 3 mm, no abrupt steps, no isolated heavy sections | Core out a solid section or blend a step with a radius |
| Draft angle | 1 to 2° external, 2 to 3° internal and on cored holes | Add draft, the single most common change we ask for |
| Radii and fillets | At least 1 mm, ideally 25 to 50% of wall thickness at internal corners | Radius sharp internal corners that would heat-check the die |
| Ribs | 60 to 80% of the adjoining wall, drafted and filleted at the root | Replace a thickened wall with ribs to gain stiffness without mass |
| Parting line | Placed so critical relationships sit within one die half | Move the parting line or regroup the toleranced features |
| Undercuts | Whether a slide or lifter is genuinely required | A small geometry change that deletes a slide and its tooling cost |
| Machining allowance | 0.5 to 1.0 mm of stock on machined faces, plus defined cast datums | Add machining pads and nominate datum features on the drawing |
| Tolerances | Which dimensions genuinely need better than ±0.1 mm | Open the non-functional tolerances, machine the few that matter |
| Alloy and finish | Alloy matched to loading, environment and machining scope | Change grade or specify a finish suited to the service environment |
The report is a recommendation, not a condition of supply. Customers regularly accept some items and decline others, and we quote whichever version you decide to release.
Part consolidation review
Consolidation is the single largest cost lever available on a mechanical part, and it is invisible if you only look at individual part drawings. A feature that is already in the die costs almost nothing per casting, so functions that currently arrive as separate parts, fasteners and assembly steps can often be absorbed into one piece of aluminum.
The savings are rarely in material. They are in the operations and the tolerance stack: an assembly of three parts has three sets of dimensional variation plus the clearance in every bolted joint, while one casting has one. That is why consolidated parts tend to fit better as well as cost less, and why an assembly that has always needed shimming often stops needing it.
Consolidation is worth reviewing whenever a drawing set has more than two aluminum parts bolting together, or any part with a welded, bonded or riveted joint in it. Send the assembly drawing and we will price the consolidated alternative against your current landed cost.
| Existing assembly | Consolidated as | What you gain |
|---|---|---|
| Machined plate with a bolted-on boss and dowel bushings | One casting with cast bosses and reamed dowel holes | Removes an assembly step and one whole tolerance stack |
| Two-piece manifold with a gasketed or bonded joint | One casting with cored internal passages | Removes a joint that can leak, plus the gasket from the bill of materials |
| Sheet metal cover with a welded stiffener and riveted brackets | One ribbed casting with cast-in mounting features | Removes weld and rivet operations and improves flatness |
| Lever with a pressed bush and a welded arm | One casting with a cast bore and a pressed bush | Removes weld distortion and gives repeatable arm geometry |
| End cap with a separate machined flange and O-ring carrier | One casting with a cast gasket groove and machined register | Removes a part and a machining setup from every unit |
| Pulley machined from bar stock | Near-net-shape casting with a machined bore and keyway | Cuts material removal, cycle time and scrap sharply |
Consolidation has a limit. A casting that needs three slides to absorb one extra feature is usually more expensive than two simple castings and a bolt, and we will say so when that is the case.
Alloy options for general mechanical castings
All four grades we cast are aluminum-silicon alloys with 7.5 to 13% silicon, and they land within 10% of each other on tensile strength. The decision is therefore rarely about strength. It is about machinability, pressure tightness, corrosion resistance and thermal conductivity, in whatever order your part's function ranks them.
A380 is the default and the cheapest, with the best machinability of the group, so it suits any part that will be heavily machined after casting. ADC12 fills thin walls and long flow paths better because of its higher silicon content. A360 is specified where the part holds pressure or lives outdoors. A413 is specified where the part has to conduct heat. European drawings calling for EN AC-46000 or AlSi9Cu3 are cast to those specifications directly.
One constraint applies to all of them: high pressure die castings are not given a conventional T6 heat treatment, because gas entrapped during injection expands at solution temperature and blisters the surface. Design to as-cast properties, and where dimensional stability rather than strength is the concern, a T5 stabilisation treatment is available.
| If the part | Specify | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Is heavily machined after casting | A380 | Highest machinability rating and the lowest alloy cost |
| Has thin walls or a long flow path | ADC12 | 9.6 to 12% silicon fills 1.5 mm sections more reliably |
| Holds fluid or gas pressure | A360 | Rated excellent for pressure tightness |
| Lives outdoors or is washed down | A360 | 0.6% maximum copper against 3 to 4% in A380 |
| Also has to dissipate heat | A413 or A360 | 121 and 113 W/m·K against 96 W/m·K |
| Must meet a European material spec | EN AC-46000 or AlSi9Cu3 | Direct equivalents within the aluminum-silicon family |
| Is loaded close to its yield limit | A380 or A360 | 159 and 170 MPa yield, the highest of the group |
Alloy chemistry is verified by spectrometer against the supplier certificate before casting starts, and every lot stays traceable to its ingot batch.
How a custom mechanical casting is made
Every part follows the same route: DFM review, die design with flow and solidification simulation, die manufacture in H13 tool steel, T1 samples, first article inspection, then production. The variable is the die itself. A simple lever or cover draws out of a two-plate die with no slides. A manifold with cross-drilled passages or a cover with a side-facing latch boss needs slides, which adds tooling cost, cycle time and a wear point.
The cast versus machined split is decided during the review and written into the quotation, because it drives price more than any other single factor. The general principle is to cast every feature that defines form and to machine only the features that define fit. Cast a boss, machine its bore. Cast a face, machine the 40 mm square of it that seals.
After casting, parts are trimmed, deburred and shot blasted, machined on a dedicated fixture, finished to the drawing specification, inspected to the agreed sampling plan on CMM, and packed. Inserts, bushings, studs and sub-assembly work can all be completed in-house so the part arrives ready for your line.
- Cast: overall form, ribs, gussets, bosses, weight relief pockets, cored passages, gasket grooves, cable channels and cast-in part numbers
- Cast: 0.5 to 1.0 mm of machining stock on any face that will be machined, plus cast datum pads for the machining fixture to locate on
- Machined: bores, registers and any diameter with a fit requirement, to ±0.02 mm and an H7 fit where specified
- Machined: sealing and mating faces to 0.02 mm per 100 mm flatness, threaded holes, keyways and positionally toleranced holes
- Assembly: pressed bushings, threaded inserts, studs, dowels, sub-assembly and leak testing where the drawing calls for it
- Inspection: spectrometer alloy verification, first article inspection before production release, CMM reports per shipment, leak or X-ray testing where specified
- Left as-cast: non-functional surfaces, rib flanks and internal faces, which keeps machining cost proportional to what the part has to do
Design considerations for custom mechanical castings
Keep walls uniform
Aim for 2 to 3 mm and hold it consistent. Thick sections solidify last, shrink inward and leave internal porosity with a sink mark on the opposite face. Where a section must be heavy, core it out or blend it with a generous radius rather than stepping abruptly.
Draft every surface
1 to 2° on external walls and 2 to 3° on internal walls and cored holes. Insufficient draft causes drag marks, ejector distortion and accelerated die wear, and it is the change we request most often during review.
Stiffen with ribs
Add ribs at 60 to 80% of the adjoining wall thickness rather than thickening the wall. Ribs raise section stiffness without creating a thermal mass that traps porosity, and they cost nothing per part once they are in the die.
Place the parting line deliberately
The parting line decides which dimensions can be held tightly. Features within one die half hold tighter tolerances than dimensions spanning the parting line or a slide, so put related toleranced features on the same side.
Question every undercut
Undercuts require slides or lifters, which add tooling cost, cycle time and a wear point. Sometimes a slide is genuinely the right answer, but often a small geometry change removes the need entirely, and that is worth checking before the design is frozen.
Tolerance only what matters
Every tolerance tighter than ±0.1 mm implies a machining operation. Mark the handful of dimensions that are critical to function and open the rest, because a drawing with blanket tight tolerances gets priced as if all of them were critical.
Cast features in rather than adding them
Bosses, mounting pads, cable channels, gasket grooves, cooling fins, labels and part numbers are close to free once they are in the die. Casting them in is almost always cheaper than machining them or assembling them later.
Plan the fixture with the part
Nominate three cast pads, or two pads and a boss, as the machining datum and mark them on the drawing. Without defined datums, machined feature position varies part to part no matter how accurate the machine is.
Protect wear surfaces
Cast aluminum is a poor bearing surface. Where a part pivots, slides or takes repeated fastener torque, specify a pressed steel bush, a threaded insert or a hardened washer rather than relying on the casting itself.
Industries that buy custom die cast mechanical components
Industrial equipment and machine building
Levers, covers, guards, plates, pulleys and manifolds across a machine builder's bill of materials, often converted from machined or fabricated parts as a design moves from prototype to series production.
Automotive and EV
Covers, end caps, adapter plates and linkage parts supplied with PPAP documentation, first article reports and IMDS data where the customer program requires it.
Robotics and automation
Structural plates, joint covers, end effector adapters and cable management parts, where stiffness-to-weight and machined datum accuracy both matter and volumes are typically low to mid.
Fluid power and pneumatics
Manifold bodies, port blocks, cylinder end caps and valve covers cast in A360, leak tested to the pressure on the drawing before shipment.
Consumer and commercial products
Handles, trims, frames, hinges and structural covers where cosmetic finish, colour consistency across lots and piece cost at volume all have to hold together.
Medical equipment
Instrument covers, trolley and arm components and structural plates, with documented lot traceability, first article inspection packages and cleanable finishes.
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Related capabilities and resources
Manufacturing services
Aluminum alloys
Part types
Industries served
Further reading
Same company, different process
Visit our CNC machining site Need machined aluminum parts instead of castings?
Die casting pays for itself above roughly 1,000 parts per year. Below that, or while you are still validating a design, CNC machining from billet is usually the faster and cheaper route. CharMax Precision runs a dedicated aluminum CNC machining operation for exactly that work, so you can prototype machined, then move to casting when volume justifies tooling.
Frequently asked questions
Can you cast a part that is not one of your listed product families?
Yes. The five families on this site describe the parts we quote most often, not a limit on what we cast. Anything within the capability envelope can be made: 20 g to 12 kg, up to roughly 700 by 500 by 300 mm, on cold chamber machines from 160 to 1,250 tons. Send the drawing and the review will tell you whether the geometry is castable as drawn and what it costs.
How do I know whether my part should be cast or machined?
Annual volume decides it more than geometry. Above roughly 2,000 parts a year casting is clearly cheaper, because tooling of 3,000 to 25,000 USD spreads thin while the piece price stays flat. Below 500 parts a year, machining from billet is usually cheaper since there is no tooling to amortise. Between 500 and 2,000 it depends on how much material machining would have to remove, and we quote both rather than guess.
Can you consolidate several of my parts into one casting?
That is worth asking on any assembly with more than two aluminum parts bolted together. A feature already in the die costs almost nothing per part, so functions currently delivered by separate pieces, fasteners and assembly steps can often be absorbed into one casting. Send the assembly drawing rather than the individual part drawings, and the quotation will show the consolidated alternative alongside the like-for-like price.
Do you make prototypes before committing to production tooling?
Yes, by three routes. CNC machining from billet gives functionally identical parts in the same alloy with no tooling, and is the fastest way to validate fit and function. Rapid or simplified tooling suits 500 to 2,000 pieces and reduces the tooling investment at the cost of shorter tool life. Or you go straight to production tooling and validate on T1 samples, which arrive 5 to 7 days after the die is finished.
Who owns the tooling once it is paid for?
Tooling is quoted as a one-time charge, remains dedicated to your part, and is never used for another customer. It is stored and maintained at our facility for the life of the program at no charge, with die condition inspected at agreed shot intervals. Ownership and transfer terms are set out in the quotation, so if you ever need the die moved there is no ambiguity about it.
What files do you need to quote?
A 3D model in STEP, IGES, X_T, SLDPRT or native CAD format, plus a 2D drawing showing critical dimensions, tolerances, surface finish, alloy and any inspection requirements. If you only have a 3D model we can still quote, but a drawing that marks which features are critical to function will get you a more accurate price and prevent misunderstandings later.
Do you have a minimum order quantity?
There is no rigid minimum once tooling exists, and we regularly run batches of 500 pieces. For new programs, the economics rather than a policy set the floor: below roughly 1,000 annual pieces, we will tell you honestly whether CNC machining from billet would serve you better.
Request for quote
Send a drawing and get your custom part reviewed
Send your 2D drawing and 3D model, or the whole assembly drawing if you want a consolidation review. You will get piece pricing, tooling cost, lead time and a written DFM report identifying anything in the geometry that would raise cost or risk quality.
- Engineering response within 24 hours on business days
- Quotation within 24-48 hours of receiving 2D/3D files
- NDA signed before file review
- Free DFM feedback