GreatLight runs hot and cold chamber die casting for zinc, aluminum and magnesium parts, then machines them to ±0.005 mm. One prototype or 10,000 pieces, with no minimum order quantity.
Most failures show up before the first shot. These four are the ones we see most.
A 2 mm wall that should be 3 mm will short-shot at the far end of the cavity. The die is already cut, so the fix means welding and re-cutting steel. That is weeks of delay and a second tooling bill nobody planned for.
Gas trapped during fill turns into surface blisters once the part hits the anodizing line. The lot gets rejected, and you are left sorting good parts from bad by hand. Vacuum assist and proper gate placement remove most of this before it starts.
Die casting alone holds roughly ±0.1 mm on small features. If a bearing bore or a mating face is called out tighter than that, the drawing needs a machining step, not a tighter die. Skipping that step leads to assembly problems downstream.
A week spent waiting on tooling prices pushes the whole program. By the time the number lands, the launch date has already moved. We return a quote and a DFM report within 12 hours so you can make the call.
Die casting gets you the geometry. CNC finishing gets you the tolerance. Both run under one roof in Dongguan.
Hot chamber machines keep the melt in a heated gooseneck, so the shot cycle is short and the metal stays clean. That suits zinc, magnesium and tin-based alloys, and it is the better route for thin walls and small, detailed parts where cycle time drives cost.
Cold chamber machines ladle metal into the shot sleeve for each cycle. The melt never sits in the injection system, which is why aluminum, copper and higher-melting alloys run here. Cycle times are longer, but the process handles the temperatures those alloys need.
A cast surface carries draft and a parting line. Bores, threads and mating faces usually need more than that. We clamp the casting on 3-axis and 5-axis centers and cut only the critical features, which keeps cycle time down compared with machining the whole part from bar stock.
This is also where the tolerance lands. Cast to ±0.1 mm, then machine the bore to ±0.005 mm. Surface finish follows the same logic: as-cast for the outside, Ra 0.8–1.6 μm on sealing faces that need it.
Use this as a first filter. The DFM report refines it once we see the geometry.
| Part condition | Recommended route | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Wall under 1.5 mm, zinc or Mg | Hot chamber die casting | Fast fill, thin sections hold |
| Aluminum housing over 200 mm | Cold chamber die casting | Melt volume and temperature |
| Bore or thread under ±0.05 mm | Cast plus CNC machining | Dies cannot hold that tolerance |
| Fewer than 50 pieces, simple shape | Machining from billet | Tooling cost is not repaid |
| Visible cosmetic surface | Cast, machine, then finish | Hides parting lines and porosity |
| Large flat plate, low load | Sheet metal fabrication | Cheaper than a casting die |
One shop for the casting, the machining and the finish.
Hot and cold chamber casting in zinc, aluminum, magnesium and copper alloys. Tooling, first article and production runs.
16 simultaneous 5-axis centers for contoured faces and multi-side features on castings and billet parts.
27 three-axis machines and 16 mill-turn centers. Bores, threads, faces and turn profiles after casting.
Check fit and form before committing to a die. Patterns and prototypes from your STEP file.
Urethane and low-volume duplicates in the tens to low hundreds, useful for pre-tooling validation.
Anodizing, plating, powder coating, black oxide, bead blasting and laser marking on cast and machined parts.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Alloys | Zinc, aluminum, magnesium, copper, tin-based |
| Cast tolerance | Around ±0.1 mm on small features |
| Machined tolerance | ±0.005 mm where the drawing calls for it |
| Surface finish | Ra 0.8–1.6 μm on machined faces |
| Part size | Up to 4,000 mm on finishing equipment |
| Tooling | Quoted per part, with DFM feedback first |
| Volume | One prototype to 10,000+ piece runs |
| Inspection | Raw material, in-process and final; reports on request |
Fifteen years of casting and machining, run as one process.
Fifteen years of tooling and production work, with the process knowledge that only shows up on the shop floor.
Cast near net shape, then cut the critical features to the tolerance the drawing actually needs.
Casting, machining and finishing under one roof. No part travels between suppliers.
Send the file and get a price plus a manufacturability review within 12 hours.
ISO 9001:2015, IATF 16949:2016, ISO 13485:2016 and ISO 27001:2022.
Uploads stay secure. We sign an NDA before reviewing sensitive designs when you ask.
Lightweight zinc and aluminum housings for joint modules, cast then machined on the bore faces.
Structural brackets and housings run under IATF 16949, with in-process checks on every lot.
Pump bodies and gear covers cast in aluminum, then milled flat on sealing faces.
Small cast and machined enclosures produced under ISO 13485 with documented inspection.
Zinc and magnesium flow better than aluminum in thin sections, so a 1.5 mm wall is routine in a hot chamber machine. Aluminum at the same wall is possible but the window is narrower.
If the part also needs to carry load or dissipate heat, aluminum is usually still the right call. We will tell you in the DFM report whether the wall in your model is castable.
As-cast, expect roughly ±0.1 mm on small features, plus draft on vertical walls. Anything tighter than that needs a machining operation after the part cools.
We mark the tight features in the DFM report and quote the machining step separately, so you can see what the tolerance actually costs.
Porosity comes from gas trapped during fill or from shrinkage as the part solidifies. Gate placement, venting and wall thickness control most of it.
For cosmetic parts we can run vacuum assist and adjust the gate so the last metal to fill sits in a hidden area. Send the cosmetic surface callout with the file.
It depends on part size and geometry. Below roughly 50 pieces with a simple shape, machining from billet is usually cheaper than cutting a die.
Between a few hundred and a few thousand, casting starts to win because the per-part cycle cost drops. We can quote both routes so the comparison is on the table.
STEP, STP, SLDPRT, IPT, PRT, SAT, IGES, IGS, CATPART, X_T, OBJ and STL all work. A 2D drawing helps if the tolerances are not in the model.
Send whatever you have. If the model is missing the tolerance callouts, we will flag it rather than guess.
The quote and DFM analysis come back within 12 hours. Production can start within 24 hours once the design and tooling are approved.
Parts ship in 3–5 days for machined work. Die cutting adds its own lead time, which we state in the quote rather than in a general promise.
No. Runs start from a single prototype and go past 10,000 pieces. The economics change across that range, but the entry point does not.
A one-piece order still goes through the same inspection steps as a production lot.
Uploads stay secure and are not shared outside the project team. We can sign an NDA before you send files if that is easier for your process.
ISO 27001:2022 covers how we handle information internally, which matters when the part is unreleased.
Upload your model and we return a price plus a DFM review within 12 hours. One prototype or a full production run.
12-hour quote100% inspectionOrder from one pieceNDA on request
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Upload your 3D model or 2D drawing and get a quotation with a free DFM analysis. Maximum processing size 4,000 mm.
CNC Metals 13 grades
CNC Plastics 10 grades
Machines & processes 12 options
Surface & post-processing 10 options
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