This is a single die-casting car body part, weighing 130 kg, with complex modeling structure, which is integrally die-cast by Giga Press, a 6000-ton die-casting machine.
Recently, Axel Turk, a German die-casting expert, shared this picture from a super factory in Texas on Linkedin, and congratulated Tesla's engineers on successfully manufacturing an unprecedented giant casting in the automotive industry.
"Those arrogant and paunchy German carmakers with government support may fall off their horses," Turk wrote excitedly.
According to the photos published by Turk, this single casting is the bottom component of Model Y front frame displayed by Tesla on Battery Day last September.
At that time, Musk said that Tesla had developed a new chassis structure. The main body of the whole chassis structure consists of a single die-casting body part at the front and rear and an integrated chassis integrated battery pack.
This inspiration comes from the aerospace field-aircraft manufacturers make wings in the shape of fuel tanks instead of wings with fuel tanks inside.
Through structural innovation, Model Y can reduce 370 parts, reduce weight by 10% and improve endurance by 14%.
Last year, Tesla realized the integrated die casting of the entire rear body of Model Y (including anti-collision steel beams), and successfully integrated 70 parts into two.
With the exposure of the bottom components of the front frame, it means that Musk is one step closer to the ultimate goal of directly casting the all-white body.
We know that traditional car companies usually go through stamping, welding, painting, assembly and other processes, and the body-in-white is welded by a large number of stamping parts.
In order to simplify the car-making process, Musk proposed to directly cast the whole car body into white by die casting process, just like making a matchbox alloy toy car.
Die casting is a metal casting process, and its principle is similar to injection molding. High pressure is applied to the molten metal and injected into the mold to cast the required parts.
This process is mostly used in aluminum alloy car body manufacturing. Cadillac, BMW, Audi and other models have used aluminum alloy castings, but they have never made aluminum alloy body castings as large as those on Y models.
Tesla's earlier patent for die casting machine shows that in the future, Tesla's body is composed of five die casting parts, while its chassis is composed of three die casting parts, and a car has only eight parts.
This means that Tesla Super Factory does not need to manage a large number of white body stamping parts in the future, which simplifies the process links such as welding and gluing, which can greatly reduce the manufacturing cost and shorten the off-line time of vehicles.
In addition, the traditional stamping process will produce a lot of waste residue, while Giga Press can recycle waste like a toy car, and the utilization rate of raw materials is almost 100%.
Integral die casting can also improve the endurance of the vehicle by reducing weight, increase the working area of the collision beam, improve the rigidity of the vehicle body and improve the collision safety by more than 20%.
Without excessive stamping, the quality consistency of body parts is also guaranteed.
Therefore, Musk has always claimed that this will be "a revolution in automobile body engineering."
At present, Tesla has at least 14 giant die casting machines, which are distributed in factories all over the world.
It is difficult for other car companies to replicate this innovation of Tesla.
Die casting machines and molds are very expensive, so it is difficult to share the cost without economies of scale. However, at present, only one company, Tesla, can sell hundreds of thousands of steel-aluminum hybrid vehicles a year.
Furthermore, Giga Press is jointly customized by Tesla and die casting machine manufacturers. Tesla is deeply involved in the design and manufacture of software and hardware. Others can buy machines and technical configurations.
Most importantly, Tesla's aluminum alloy material is an exclusive formula. Without this material, Giga Press could not have produced such a large aluminum casting.
As early as 20 16, Tesla hired Charles Koymen, an apple alloy expert, to lead the material engineering team of Tesla and Space X. Only material innovation can achieve technological innovation.
The answer is actually very simple, because Tesla has never stopped innovating, whether it was on the verge of bankruptcy or involved in the whirlpool of public opinion again and again.
This kind of innovation is not tinkering on the shoulders of predecessors, but can redefine the subversive innovation of the whole industry from the first principle.
Today, it is difficult for you to bypass Tesla and talk about the application of some new technologies, new materials and new processes in the smart tram scene.
This is also part of the reason why Tesla has been controversial.
Innovation is not controversial, and it is probably not innovation.