Aluminum Die Casting Lighting Fixture Parts from aluminum sand castings. A customer who is a lighting parts manufacturer purchases an aluminum sand casting fixture for his lighting products. This sand casting is an “Aluminum Trolley Mount” used to hold his lighting fixtures from the ceiling in a room. This aluminum trolley fixture has to be strong and look good to be part of his lighting products. He has been using this aluminum sand casting for quite a long time. The initial sand casting cost less to get started with a new product line and die casting cost a little more. The sand casting tooling costs less than $5000 to get started and the part price in this case is about $70 each part. My customer buys about 50 parts a month. His total cost to purchase these castings in a year after the tooling is paid for would be $70 per part times 12 times per year times 50 parts per month ($42,000 per year). Can this part be cost effectively produced as an aluminum die casting lighting fixture?

Aluminum Lighting Fixture Die Castings
The die casting part will require die cast tooling. This tooling will take about 10 weeks to be made and will cost about $28,000 to be made. This seems too expensive for some but if the annual total cost is calculated it will show that the tooling cost is justified. The part price in this case is $8 each part. A simple calculation will show the cost of the die castings with the die casting tooling will be better than the cheaper sand casting price.

Aluminum Die Castings
Part Price — $ 8.00
Annual Quantity — 600
Total parts cost — $4,800
Tooling cost — $28,000
Total product cost — $32,800

Aluminum Sand Castings
Part Price — $ 70.00
Annual Quantity — 600
Total parts cost — $42,000
Tooling cost — Paid for already
Total product cost — $42,000

The aluminum die casting option will cost about $9,000 less the first year and over $30,000 less each year afterwards. Die casting aluminum is a better option.