2024: How Much Does Die Casting Cost?
Die casting is a manufacturing process that the liquid melt is pressured in to a mold by high pressure (150–1,200 bar) at a high speed (up to 540 km/h). Die casting is an economical way in 2024 to produce large quantities of complicated shaped production of light metals with low wall thickness and high precision. The main difference between die casting and other casting methods are high pressure and high speed.
Die casting products are created by die casting equipment. Quality level of the die casting product somehow depends on the technical level of die casting equipment. This article explore show much does die casting costwhich may help to save your time, reduce the cost and improve efficiency.
The three main factors that influence die casting cost include material cost, production cost and the mold cost.
Material cost
Material cost has two factors which include net material cost per unit of volume and component material volume. Five main factors that determine the net material cost per unit of volume include purchase price of material per unit of weight, in-plant processing and handling cost, the cost of recycling in-house scrap, value of scrap sold outside the factory and scrap generated by finish machining operations. Material cost depends on the required weight of material and the unit cost of the material. The required weight of material include material filled the channel of the die. Die casting parts with thinner walls need a large channel system to make sure that the whole part fills fast and evenly, so it is necessary to increase the amount the material. Additional materials are usually less than the material saved from partial volume reduction because of the thinner wall. So, thinner wall lowers the materials cost.
Casting Production
Production cost depends on the hourly rate and cycle time. The hourly rate is proportional to the die casting machine size. Design of the parts will affect the machine selection. Die casting machines are referred to by the tonnage of the provided clamping force. So, producing large die casting parts will need a larger clamping force and more expensive die casting machines. Some materials need high injection pressures which require higher tonnage machines. And the size of the part needs to conform to other machine specification. The type of machine also affects the production cost. For example, some material with high melting temperature like aluminum need more expensive cold chamber machine. Cycle time includes injection time, cooling time and resetting time. Reducing the cycle time can lower the production time. Compared to using a cold chamber machine process, using a hot chamber machine saves time because molten metal must be ladled in to the machine during a cold chamber machine process.
Mold cost
Optimizing the mold design and reusing the existing molds is the most effective and practical way to lower the die casting mold cost.
1. Mold flow analysis lower cost
In the past, even experienced engineers needed to do many tests and modifications when they design and build die casting mold which significantly increase the product development cycle. With today’s CAD, CAE technologies, engineers can see the true flow and solidification of the molten metal inside the mold in die casting process and find the location defect in advance through simulation analysis.
2. Use core to lower mold cost
For those parts which are designed with similarities and can be used on other models with partial modifications, we can consider making different parts into a core and a pair of molds to make a variety of products. We can make the joints into different cores, and several products share a set of molds to reduce the cost of several parts of molds.
3. Reuse old molds
If the molds reach the end of the service lift, replaced mold process is need but increase the cost of the mold. If the mold frames are good, they can be reused by redoing a set of cores and using the new mold core with the old mold frame. This will save a cost of a set mold frame.
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Above is you need to know about the die casting cost. TEAM Rapid, as a leading manufacturer in industry, we offer die casting services, if you have questions about how much does die casting cost or rapid manufacturing, contact us today.
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