Drone structural parts
Airframes, motor mounts, battery housings. Thin-walled, light, EMC-shielded. Swarm and loitering-munition platforms welcome.
Defense / Aluminium die-casting
You secure peace and freedom
with your technology.
We secure new capacities
with ours.
Die-cast housings that scale with you — from pilot sample to four-digit series. For the European defense industry.
1,000+
units/year, no re-engineering
≤ 8 wks
from NDA to first sample
ITAR-free
EU supply chain, home production
1936
three generations of die-casting
The actual bottleneck
Five years ago, an annual run.
Five years ago, an annual run.
Today, monthly demand.
What was a pilot volume five years ago is monthly demand today. Milling takes per-part time that four-digit series no longer have. Die-casting is the answer that fits these volumes — and we have the capacity for it.
2020 / Pilot
units / year
50
2023 / Pre-series
units / year
750
2026 / Series
units / year
5,000
Representative order-of-magnitude from DE/EU defense contracts, 2020–2026.
Milling or die-casting?
Milling is right for the prototype.
Milling is right for the prototype.
We are there for the series.
As long as defense demand was double-digit, milling was the only sensible answer. Four-digit series flip the maths — on unit cost, throughput, lead time.
< 200 parts / year
Milling
Still the right answer.
- No tooling invest, production-ready instantly.
- Unit cost high, but low volume makes the maths work.
- Geometry limited by tool access.
Relative unit cost
100 (ref)
200 – 1,000 parts / year
Break-Even
Geometry decides.
- Tooling invest starts to amortise.
- Mill slots fill up — lead time becomes the real bottleneck.
- We assess for free whether your part has already tipped.
Relative unit cost
≈55
> 1,000 parts / year
Die-casting
Economically superior.
- Unit cost 15–25% of milled equivalent.
- Cycle time from minutes to seconds.
- Tool amortises in the series range — break-even depends on the part.
Relative unit cost
15–25
Die-casting fit check
Six questions.
Six questions.
Three yes is enough.
Die-casting does not suit every part. But it suits many more parts than most engineering teams currently assume — especially those still milled today. If three of these apply to your part, we should talk.
01
Aluminium part.
The only hard material prerequisite. Everything else is detail.
02
Complex internal geometry.
Ribs, bosses, cooling channels, mounting eyes — in one shot instead of twelve milling setups.
03
Wall thickness 1.5 – 5 mm.
The die-casting sweet spot. Thinner is possible. Thicker is a venting question.
04
Part weight 0.5 – 60 kg.
Small enough for the line. Large enough that milling really hurts.
05
Weight is a design criterion.
Drone frames, manpack shells, UGV structural parts — anywhere every gram has to go.
06
Safety- or weight-critical.
Function depends on tolerance chain and wall uniformity. Die-casting beats batch-to-batch scatter from milling.
What we cast
Aluminium die-casting
Aluminium die-casting
for defense.
We focus on the housing family — structurally load-bearing, EMC-shielded, thermally rated. From drone airframes to radar module enclosures.
Radar & IR module housings
Tight-tolerance enclosures with integrated cooling. Anodised or coated, ITAR-free supply.
Radios & electronics
Handheld housings, stack modules, rack sub-assemblies. From prototype to mid-volume without tooling changes.
Unmanned vehicles
Structural parts, mounting plates, control-electronics housings. In-house assembly and machining depth.
Mountings & structures
Brackets, adapters, mount components. High repeatability for safety-critical applications.
Capabilities
What we can deliver.
Detailed spec on request, under NDA. Headline numbers:
| Parameter | Spec | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Process | Aluminium die-casting (cold chamber) | 250 t to 3,200 t clamping force. In plain terms: from small radio housings to large structural parts of several kilograms — on the cell that fits the part. |
| Material | Aluminium | High-strength, lightweight, heat-treatable — we pick the right alloy with you. AlSi family, T5/T6/T7, 3.1 material certificate. |
| Weight / part | 500 g – 60 kg | Sweet spot 0.5 – 5 kg. Larger parts up to 60 kg after part assessment. |
| Repeatability | Part 1 like part 5,000. | As-cast CT5–CT7 per DIN ISO 8062-3. Functional surfaces CNC-machined to ±0.02 mm. We plan the tolerance chain around the part, not around the data sheet. |
| Surface | Whatever the part needs. | From raw die-cast to corrosion-resistant series finish. Anodising (electrochemical protection), e-coat (dip-bath primer), powder coat (durable top finish) — in-house or via qualified partners. |
| Testing | X-ray, dimensional, leak | 100% inspection on safety-critical parts. |
| Volume | 20 – 5,000 / year | We calculate the sweet spot for you — tooling cost against unit cost on your specific part. |
| Certifications | ISO 9001 / ISO 14001 | Defense-specific audits (MIL-STD, AQAP) qualifiable on request. |
Sovereignty
Home production.
Home production.
Short lines.
You know the friction — ITAR sign-offs, US re-export exposure, fragmented EU supply chains. We are the boring answer: German supply chain, German production, German accountability. For 90 years.
-
01
Made in GermanyProduction in Dautphetal. The full supply chain — from tooling to post-machining — mapped entirely within Germany. No sub-tier deliveries from third countries.
-
02
ITAR-free, NATO-wide supplyNo US components in our value chain. Direct supply across NATO without re-export licence — DE, FR, IT, ES, NO, FI, PL.
-
03
STANAG 5651 / ESSOR-readyDie-cast housings for software-defined radios in the geometries NATO modernisation is calling for now. From pilot sample to four-digit series.
-
04
Decisions in daysYou talk to engineering and ownership directly. No corporate escalation path.
How we get started
From first contact to first sample
From first contact to first sample
in four defined steps.
We know how defense procurement works — and how little appetite your engineering team has for a 12-page vendor onboarding. So our entry process is short.
01
Enquiry
You send geometry, volumes, target price. NDA counter-signed within 24h.
Day 0–2
02
DfM
Die-cast assessment, material proposal, tolerance sign-off, tooling cost estimate.
Week 1–2
03
Manufacturing
Tool build, sampling prep, tool sign-off.
Week 2–6
04
First sample
Sampling, first sample delivery, ISIR per VDA Vol 2 or customer-specific.
Week 6–8
Who you talk to
„We are a family business, not a corporate group. When you need a partner who calls back and brings decisions with them — we are there.“
André Weißbenner — Managing Director
Benjamin Jung — Sales · Member of the Management
Heck + Becker GmbH, Dautphetal
Direct contact
Benjamin Jung
benjamin.jung@heck-becker.com
+49 170 7967385
Sales · Member of the Management · Heck + Becker GmbH
Certified
ISO 9001:2015
ISO 14001
First conversation
Talk to us about your project.
Geometry, volume, target SOP. We come back within 24 hours with a first die-casting assessment — under NDA.
