Die Casting FAQ

Production starts at 1,000 pieces per order. The threshold exists because die casting's economics — tooling, machine setup, process stabilization — need volume to make sense for both sides. Below that, we can discuss bridge approaches during the review, from machined pilots to single-cavity sampling, depending on where your design maturity sits.

It depends on the tool's complexity — cavity count, slides, size — and honest suppliers quote tooling time per project rather than promising a universal number. What we commit to: the tooling timeline is stated in the quotation, progress is reported at defined milestones, and trial results arrive with measurements rather than assurances.

Also quoted per program, because machine assignment, quantities and finishing scope change the answer. Once a program is running, call-off lead times stabilize and are agreed in the supply terms. What you will not get is a marketing number that quietly becomes fiction at the first real order.

Aluminum and zinc die casting alloys — the families that cover the large majority of die cast parts. We deliberately do not claim magnesium or specialty metals we do not run at production quality; if your part genuinely needs them, the review will say so instead of force-fitting the design into our furnaces.

For design validation before tooling commits, we discuss bridge options at the review: machining a handful of parts from solid, or building a single-cavity tool that can later scale. Which route fits depends on how frozen your design is and what the prototype must prove — form, fit, or process behavior.

STEP or STP models are ideal; a dimensioned PDF drawing carries the tolerances, criticals and finish callouts the model cannot. Send both when you have them. Native CAD from major systems is workable. The more your drawing marks what actually matters, the faster and sharper the quote.

Drawings are handled as confidential by default, an NDA can be signed before you send anything, and your tooling — with ownership terms in writing — is not used for anyone else's parts. IP anxiety about China sourcing mostly traces to broker chains where nobody knows who has the files; factory-direct, exactly one company has them.

What the control plan for your program specifies: typically material certificates per lot, first-article inspection reports, and sampling records for the dimensions your drawing marks critical. Where your industry needs more — PPAP-style packages, specific gauge protocols — that is agreed and priced at the start. Certification scope documentation is available on request.

Yes — in person in Dongguan or by live video walk, both routine. You can see the machines, the tool room, the inspection area and the people who answer your emails. We recommend auditing any casting supplier this way, including us; the supplier selection guide on this site gives you the checklist.

Tooling and production carry separate commercial terms, stated in the quotation and refined in the supply agreement — typically deposit-based for tooling and standard trade terms for production, adjusted to program history. Terms live in writing from the first quote; surprises in month six are a supplier defect, not a norm.

The change is reviewed for tooling impact, quoted, and executed by the tool room that built the die, with first-article inspection repeated on affected features and records updated. Designs that expect evolution can plan for it at the tooling stage with insert-based construction — tell the review where change is likely.

An agent adds a margin and a communication relay; whether that buys you anything depends on the agent. Factory-direct, engineering questions reach the people at the machines, quality records have one owner, and the commercial relationship survives personnel changes on either side. Agents make sense for buyers managing dozens of categories; for a serious casting program, direct is simpler and cheaper.

Five things: the model (STEP), the drawing with criticals marked, the alloy direction or an explicit 'advise us', the honest annual volume, and the finish specification. With those, the engineering review starts immediately; without them, the first exchange is us asking for them. The request-a-quote form is structured around exactly this list.

A Dongguan factory operating since 1997 as part of SunOn Industrial Group — roughly 32,000 square meters and around 1,000 people across mold making, die casting, CNC machining and finishing. The About page covers the company relationships plainly, including how Inox Die Cast relates to the group's other operations.

Transferred tools are inspected first — steel condition, cavity dimensions against your drawing, remaining useful life — and the finding decides the conversation: some transferred dies run here for years, others cost more to rescue than to replace. Either way you get the assessment in writing before committing, which is more than the failing relationship you are leaving probably offered.