Justification tool

T-Slot vs. Welded Steel Lifecycle Cost Calculator

Purchase price is not the comparison your plant manager should be making. This models both approaches across their full service life — fabrication, every reconfiguration, the downtime each one costs you, maintenance, and what's left at the end. Every assumption below is editable, and all of them print on the report so the number can be argued with rather than taken on faith.

Faztek Industrial Solutions
Lifecycle Cost Comparison

1. The project

Sets the scale of both estimates
Presets a typical framing length per unit. Override it below if you know your real number.
Extrusion or tube, not panel area.
New product, line rebalance, added access, moved cell.
25%
A door relocation might be 10%. Re-splitting a cell for a new part family is closer to 50%.

2. What your time is worth

The crux of the argument
$
Wage + benefits + overhead, per hour.
$
Don't guess — build this number here.
In-house labor is valued using the setting above.

3. Assumptions

Edit anything — it all prints

Defaults are mid-range North American figures for 2"×2" formed steel tube versus 40 mm modular aluminum profile. Replace them with your own quoted numbers before you send this to anyone.

Welded steel assumptions
$
$
%
Cutting welds out is slower than laying them.
%
Cut members rarely go back in.
Hot work on the floor: clear the area, fire watch, fume, cure time.
$
$
%
Scrap price on a painted weldment, net of cutting it up.
Modular t-slot aluminum assumptions
$
$
Includes cut-to-length and end-tap service.
%
Loosen, slide, re-torque.
%
Existing profile is reused unless length changes.
No hot work, so much of it can happen around production.
$
Anodized aluminum doesn't get repainted.
%
Profile and hardware redeploy onto the next project. This is the line most comparisons omit.
0%
Leave at 0% for plain dollars. Set it if finance wants NPV — it makes future savings worth less, which is the conservative presentation.
Lifetime advantage — modular t-slot
$0
over 10 years

Total cost of ownership

Welded steel$0
Modular t-slot$0
Day-one cost
—
difference at install
Breakeven
—
 
Cost per change
—
steel → t-slot
Downtime avoided
—
over the service life

Cumulative spend

by year

The PDF lists every assumption you set, so the person you forward it to can check the math instead of trusting it.

Where the money goes

All figures for the full project over the service life
Cost elementWelded steelModular t-slotDifference

A negative difference favours steel; positive favours modular. Salvage appears as a negative cost because the material still has value when the project ends.

What this model does and doesn't claim

Counted

  • Material, fabrication or assembly labor, and finishing at install
  • Design and detailing hours for each approach
  • Every reconfiguration: rework labor, replacement material, refinishing, hot work permits
  • Production downtime caused by each change, at the rate you entered
  • Ongoing maintenance — repainting, corrosion touch-up
  • Residual value: scrap for steel, redeployable inventory for aluminum

Not counted

  • Freight, taxes, and installation contractor markup
  • Ergonomic or safety-incident cost differences
  • Schedule risk from outside fab lead times — shown, not costed
  • Structural performance. These are cost models, not engineering ones; deflection and load capacity must be verified independently for your application
  • Any regulatory or insurance consequence of hot work in your facility

This calculator produces a planning estimate from the assumptions shown. It is not a quotation and not an engineering analysis. Figures should be validated against your own quoted material pricing, labor rates, and production data before being used in a capital request.