Tesla's Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai. Image credit: Tesla
Tesla has released footage of an assembly-line robot removing a still-smoking casting part from one of its immense Giga Press machines as it highlights its investments into new casting technologies that it says simplify manufacturing and improve vehicle quality.
The Giga Press, manufactured by Italy’s Idra Group, represents a relatively new approach to car manufacturing in that it allows large sections of the vehicle to be created as a single casting.
Tesla is currently using the die-casting machine to manufacture its Model Y cars with a single piece for the rear underbody and another for the front underbody, replacing dozens of separate parts.
“Single-piece casting reduces weight, greatly simplifies factory, increases ride quality & reduces road noise,” Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said in a Twitter post accompanying the video.
Tesla said on Twitter that the machines “enable us to make full-sized cars the same way toy cars are made”.
Idra says it has sold 24 of the presses to date to customers including Tesla, with 12 currently online and the rest set to become operational by the end of the year.
Tesla is said to be using the machines at its plants in the US and Germany.
When the company installed its first Giga Press at its Fremont, California factory in 2020 the machine was the first of its kind in the world.
It has since taken delivery of several more 6,0000-tonne Giga Presses at its Texas factory, where it is using them to produce Model Y sedans.
The technology is key to Tesla’s plans for the long-delayed Cybertruck, which it intends to begin manufacturing next year.
Earlier this month Idra released footage of its next-generation, larger 9,000-tonne Giga Press being assembled, and Musk confirmed on Twitter that the machine would be used to manufacture the Cybertruck’s underbody at the Austin, Texas factory.
In May Tesla released footage of a Cybertruck prototype being used to deliver refreshment to construction workers at its Texas plant.
On Tesla’s quarterly earnings call last week Musk said the company was planning to deliver the first Cybertrucks in mid-2023.
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