Tesla’s Secret Weapon: The Insane Giga Press In Action!
Tesla's Giga Press is a weapon of mass destruction. Oops! I forgot. It is a secret
weapon of mass manufacturing. It is used to manufacture the chassis of cars. The Giga Press
has the capacity of achieving what a weapon of mass destruction can realize on the battlefield.
No wonder Elon Musk has heavily invested in this weapon. This die casting machine is a
secret weapon as it came sooner than the world expected it back in 2018. Tesla's CEO caught his
competitors such as BMW and Audi by surprise. Anyway, surprise is a super strategy in war
and Musk has decided to import it into the tech and business environment. The results
of using the Giga Press in the production of the chassis for Tesla's electric car are just insane.
With this premium casting press machine, Elon Musk enjoys a competitive edge over his rivals.
Tesla has capitalized on the incredibly complicated technology to produce cheaper
and high-quality cars. The production process is also faster. The 6,000-ton Giga Press takes
less than 100 seconds to convert the molten alloy into a complete chassis.
Is that not insane? If you are fascinated, hang on to the end of the video as I discuss the Giga
Press in detail. You will love it. What Exactly is a Giga Press?
The Giga Press is a high-pressure aluminum casting machine that is manufactured by IDRA
Group in Italy. Just as the name Giga Press suggests it is a gigantic machine. It weighs
between 410-430 tonnes. It is a powerful machine that has a clamping force of between 55,000
and 61,000 kilonewtons (kN). It is bigger than your house. To be precise it is slightly bigger
than Airbus which weighs 400 tonnes. The Giga Press is 19.7 m long, 7.4 m wide and 6 m high.
In a layman’s language, it is that huge and complicated machine that makes smaller and more
simplified Tesla cars. It is that simple. Who manufactures the Giga Press?
The Giga Press is manufactured by an Italian Company known as IDRA. The Company specializes in
metal casting technologies. So far the company has made 2 shipped 2 Giga Press machines to Tesla Inc.
One of the Giga Press machines is installed at the Fremont Factory while the other one is in
the Shanghai Gigafactory. Wait a minute! Why the word “Giga” in both ADRA’s Giga Press and Tesla’s
Gigafactory. And how come that Tesla is the first EV manufacturer to buy the Giga Press machines?
The Chemistry between Tesla and IDRA cannot just be ignored. Did Tesla have input in the design
of the 6,000-ton Giga Press? Probably yes, as the Giga Press needs to be customized to meet
their industry needs. IDRA is keen to produce more efficient Giga Presses that will meet the
needs of their customers. The Giga Press in Action!
The robust die casting machine is capable of turning a molten alloy into the chassis
of a car in less than 100 seconds. That speed is just incredible. You can only see the Giga
Press in Action by observing its work. Here are the simple steps that the Giga Press undertakes
when making the underbody of a car. 1. Oil is spread into the mould which
helps to ensure that the end product is removed with ease. It also helps
it easy for the reusing of the mould. 2. An external furnace of 850 Degrees
Celsius is used to heat the aluminum and silicon metals to a molten state.
3. The molten alloy is quickly poured into the mould where it is pressed rapidly to remove
heat. It is cooled to 400 Degrees Celsius. 4. The resulting product is removed by a
robot and dipped into the water where it cools up to 50 Degrees Celsius.
5. The product is now removed from the water and checked for any defects such as rough edges.
6. The robots will now drill the required holes on the chassis of the car.
6,000-ton Verses 4,000-ton Giga Presses The 6,000-ton Giga Press is more efficient
than the 4,000-ton Giga Press. Other auto companies such as Audi, BMW, and Cadillac have
used the 4,000-ton Giga Press in the past which is no match for Tesla's 6-000 ton Giga Press.
4 of the 4,000-ton Giga Presses are used in the manufacture of the underbody of the car. The four
are equally distributed to manufacture the four of the underbody of the car.
The four parts are front light, front left, back right, and back left.
On the other hand, only 2 of the 6,000-ton Giga Presses are used in the manufacture of the chassis
of the Tesla Model Y car. They manufacture a single chassis that has a front casting,
battery case, and rear case. The two 6,000-ton Giga Presses
are cheaper than the four 4, 000-ton Giga Presses. The 4,000-ton Giga Press is quite slow
as the molten alloy must be smoothly injected into the 4,000- ton Giga Press.
On the contrary, the 6,000-ton Giga Press is quite faster as the molten can be poured turbulently
into the 6,000 Giga Press. These are the two reasons why Elon Musk prefers the 6,000-ton Giga
Presses to the 4,000-ton Giga Presses. Advantages of the Giga Press to Tesla
The Giga Press is an incredibly sophisticated technology that is indispensable to Tesla.
It is the game-changer that has given Elon Musk a competitive edge over his competitors.
Tesla Company benefits from the Giga Press in the following ways;
1. Reduction of costs. The cost of making a single body chassis of a Tesla car is cheaper
when using a Giga Press compared to the initial production method. The Giga Press eliminates
the need of using more than 70 different components in making the underbody of a car.
The gigantic casting press machine makes a single body chassis that replaces the former chassis that
had many parts joined to each other. The massive machine cuts down the operational cost by 40%.
Tesla no longer needs the service of 200 of its robots after it embraced the Giga Press
which reduces their cost even further. The number of human labor that was used before
the use of the Giga Press in Tesla has greatly reduced as the Giga Press is more efficient.
2. More efficient process. Giga Presses have made production more efficient in Tesla
as the huge casting machine can turn the molten alloy into a single
body chassis of a car in less than 100 seconds. The older method that
involved bolting and screwing of the parts was cumbersome and inefficient.
3. Better quality control. The Giga Press has synchronized the different processes
of car manufacturing. The chassis of a car is now solely made by the Giga Press which makes
monitoring of quality easy as the number of parts used in making the chassis is reduced.
Initially, it was difficult to monitor quality control since the more than 70 components used
in the chassis were made in different places making it difficult to monitor their quality.
The more than 70 parts were only transported to the Tesla Gigafactories for assembly.
4. High-quality chassis. The high accuracy of making the underbody of the car
is increased becomes the Giga Press uses the concept of repeated Geometry.
Through repeated geometry, the machine can produce exact copies of the underbody of a car.
The issue of weaker joints caused by defects of welding is eliminated when the Giga Press is used.
5. Energy-saving. The Giga Press process of chassis manufacturing is 20% more energy efficient
than the normal method. As such, the amount of CO2 that is produced into the air is reduced.
The Future of Tesla’s Giga Press Technology Elon Musk is obsessed with tech innovations
and will continue to surprise us even in the area of Giga Press technology. The tech genius
is unstoppable as he is determined to make things better. He has heavily invested in the Shanghai
Gigafactory where it wants to research how to improve the production of Tesla vehicles.
Guess what! Tesla's Gigafactory will be one of the technologies that he will seek to improve.
Besides the two 6,000-ton Giga Presses he bought from IDRA,
he has ordered more for all his Gigafactories. He wants to add the casting machines to both Fremont
Gigafactory and Shanghai Gigafactory. Some of the machines will also be installed in Austin
Gigafactory and Berlin Gigafactory. The Berlin Gigafactory is going to be heavily equipped as
he seeks to challenge the German Automakers who have dominated the auto industry for a long time.
Tesla CEO, Elon Musk has also revealed that Tesla has ordered two 8,000-ton Giga Presses
from IDRA. The 8,000-ton Giga Presses will help in manufacturing the chassis of the much-awaited
Tesla Cyber Truck. The Tesla Semi Truck Chassis will also be manufactured by the same Giga Press.
Musk is likely to abandon the use of two 6,000-ton Giga Presses in the manufacture of Tesla Model Y
for a 12,000 ton Giga Press. The 12,000-ton Giga Press might be able to cast the $ 25,000 Tesla car
as a single piece. Conclusion
Elon Musk is just determined to assemble an army of Giga Presses as the secret weapon in
fighting the economic war of casting the chassis of Tesla cars. The premium cast press machine will
help Musk and Tesla to produce energy efficient vehicles just like toys are produced.