MIC-6 cast tooling plate machining

MIC-6 Aluminum Plate Machining

MIC-6 is cast, thermally stress-relieved aluminum plate that does one thing better than any wrought alloy: it stays flat after you machine most of it away.

We machine MIC-6 into fixture plates, inspection platforms, and precision bases — the parts where a rolled 6061 plate would potato-chip the moment the pockets went in.

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ISO 9001:2015
Prototype to production
FAI reports available
Material certificates available
Engineering review within one business day

What it's best for

When flatness is the specification

Choose MIC-6 when dimensional stability outranks strength. Its cast structure has almost no internal stress, so heavy, asymmetric machining doesn't release movement into the part.

Fixture and tooling plates

Workholding bases with grid patterns, dowel bores, and pockets — the canonical MIC-6 application.

Inspection and CMM platforms

Staging plates and gauge bases where the reference surface must stay trustworthy across years of use.

Precision machine bases

Sub-bases for stages, optics benches, and motion systems where the plate is the accuracy foundation.

Vacuum table and chuck bodies

Cast structure machines into leak-tight vacuum plenums with flat sealing faces — grid channels and O-ring grooves included.

Large flat lids and platens

Wide, thin, pocketed covers and heated platens that must not bow after machining or in service.

Where MIC-6 is wrong

Structural or impact-loaded parts: MIC-6 yields around 105 MPa and doesn't like sharp impacts. Loaded plates belong in 6061-T651 or 7075 aluminum machining.

Common CNC machined parts

What we build from MIC-6 plate

Our MIC-6 order book is tooling infrastructure — the plates the rest of production sits on.

CNC fixture base plates

Pallet and vise-cluster bases with H7 dowel grids and engraved position IDs.

Assembly and test nests

Cavity nests machined from plate CAD, flat enough that parts locate identically across nests.

Vacuum fixtures

Channelled vacuum plates with sealing grooves and ported connections for thin-part holding.

Optical and sensor breadboards

Tapped-grid platforms where flatness keeps mounted optics in alignment.

Machine sub-plates and risers

Interface plates between machines and tooling, machined flat both sides with located patterns.

Automation cell platforms

Robot and conveyor mounting plates where a stable reference plane simplifies commissioning.

Buying for a specific industry? See how this material fits robotics, automation equipment, medical device hardware, aerospace tooling, electronics housings, and industrial equipment programs.

Machining considerations

Machining MIC-6: stability with a porosity asterisk

MIC-6 machines fast, stays put, and finishes matte. Its cast nature brings two honest limitations — porosity and edge brittleness — that good process planning works around.

Stress-free means sequence-free flatness

Unlike rolled plate, MIC-6 lets us pocket one side heavily without warping the other. Large one-sided pocketing jobs that need double-sided compensation passes in 6061 machine straight through in MIC-6.

Both faces arrive precision-milled

MIC-6 ships at ±0.13 mm thickness with fine-milled faces around Ra 0.5 µm. Where a face isn't functional, leaving the mill finish saves an operation — mark which faces we may leave as-supplied.

Porosity can surface anywhere

Cast plate contains scattered micro-porosity. It's cosmetic on most tooling, but on vacuum plenums and sealing faces we plan sealing strategy (impregnation or design margin) rather than hoping.

Threads need respect, edges need chamfers

MIC-6 threads are weaker than 6061's — use inserts for any working thread — and cast material chips at sharp edges, so every edge gets a chamfer, not just a deburr pass.

It cuts fast and finishes matte

Low silicon and no work-hardening make MIC-6 quick to machine. The finish is uniformly grey-matte rather than bright — normal, and irrelevant on tooling.

Handle thin sections deliberately

Below ~8 mm remaining thickness, MIC-6's low strength shows: fine for reference surfaces, wrong for cantilevered features that get bumped in service.

Surface finishing

Finishing MIC-6 tooling plate

Tooling plates get finished for wear and identification, not looks. MIC-6 anodizes acceptably but never brightly — plan accordingly.

As-machined / as-supplied faces

The default for reference and measurement surfaces — uncoated faces stay probe-able and re-machinable at rebuild time.

Hardcoat anodize (Type III)

On nest walls and sliding zones to stop galling; expect a matte dark-grey film — cast structure won't produce 6061's uniformity.

Clear anodize (Type II)

General protection for plates handled with coolant-wet gloves daily; masked at dowel bores and reference faces.

Colored anodize coding

Works on MIC-6 for fixture family identification — accept mottled tone in exchange for instant visual sorting.

Sealing impregnation

For vacuum plates where porosity leaks matter, resin impregnation before final machining closes the pores reliably.

Engraving over labels

Machine-engraved IDs, grid coordinates, and datum marks survive coolant and solvent — planned into the machining cycle at no real cost.

Each finish has its own engineering guide: as-machined, bead blasted, clear anodized, black anodized, hardcoat anodized, chem film, and laser marking — or compare them all in the surface finishes hub.

Tolerance & inspection

Flatness and tolerance guidance for MIC-6

MIC-6's value is measured in flatness retained after machining. These are honest numbers for real plates, not lab specimens.

Feature	Typical capability	Engineering notes
Flatness after machining	0.05 mm per 500 mm	With a finish-facing pass; as-supplied plate spec is ~0.38 mm per 1200 mm
Thickness (machined both faces)	±0.02 mm	As-supplied thickness is ±0.13 mm — machine faces that matter
Dowel and bushing bores	H7	Location strategy identical to our fixture-plate standard
Pattern position across plate	±0.02 mm	Within one setup; large plates probed for thermal drift during the run
Working threads	6H with inserts recommended	Cast threads wear early — inserts make them serviceable
Perpendicularity of machined walls	0.02 mm per 100 mm	For nest walls and fence features referenced to the plate face

Before you upload CAD

MIC-6 plate checklist before you upload

Tooling plate RFQs move fastest when the drawing distinguishes reference geometry from everything else.

Upload CAD for Quote Aluminum CNC machining capabilities

State the flatness requirement and zone
'0.05 over the central 400 mm' machines differently than '0.05 everywhere'. Tolerance the zone your process actually references.
Mark faces we may leave as-supplied
MIC-6's factory faces are often good enough for non-reference sides — every face we don't machine is money saved.
Put working threads in inserts
Any thread torqued regularly should carry a helical insert callout from day one, not after the first stripped hole.
Design edges with chamfers
Specify 0.5–1 mm chamfers on plate edges and pocket rims — cast material chips at sharp corners during handling.
Flag vacuum and sealing zones
Tell us which surfaces seal so porosity strategy (impregnation, groove placement, test spec) enters the quote.
Send plate size, STEP, and PDF
Stock thickness drives cost steps on cast plate — if your design can flex ±3 mm on thickness, say so and we'll match a standard size.

Quote your MIC-6 tooling plates

Send STEP, PDF drawings with flatness zones marked, and target quantity. An engineer confirms plate stock, machining sequence, and sealing strategy, then returns a quote within one business day.