A few days ago, according to media reports, Tesla’s strategy of using a large casting machine (Giga Press) is being accepted by other car companies.
A Tesla supplier said that there are now six automakers following Tesla’s large-scale casting strategy and are cooperating with them.
The large-scale casting strategy pioneered by Tesla is to use a giant die-casting machine to manufacture super-large integral parts to replace the body structure assembled by N parts. The main difficulty is the new materials used for die-casting and the giant die-casting machine.
According to Tesla’s data, when the rear body of the Model Y was previously produced, 70 parts were needed to create a structure. With the integrated die-casting technology, a giant structural part can replace it. The production of huge structural parts only takes a few minutes, which is much faster than the previous production of 70 scattered parts and then integration.
This casting method can not only greatly reduce the number of parts, the length of the wiring harness, the overall weight, and the difficulty of assembly, but also a qualitative leap in cost control and production efficiency. However, some people have also raised questions about this, thinking that the maintenance cost of cast car bodies is higher.
But from the current point of view, some other car companies are willing to try this production method, especially in China.
According to foreign media reports, the partner of Tesla’s integrated casting technology is China Lijin Group. The engineers of the group said in an interview with the media that the company is providing six Chinese companies with giant casting machines similar to Tesla. These customers will be able to adopt these technologies as soon as next year.
