Tesla
In 2019 Jerome Guillen indicated that Tesla Automation were working on a "giant, giant, giant machine" to "make full-size cars in the same way that toy cars are made".
In April 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla had purchased the two biggest casting machines in the world to cast the Tesla Model Y rear chassis and crash rails. In January 2021, Musk stated that the rear chassis of the Tesla Cybertruck would be produced using a casting machine larger than 8000 tf.[10]
As of October 2021, Tesla had five casting machines installed at Giga Shanghai, two machines installed at Tesla Factory in Fremont, two machines installed at Giga Berlin, and two machines going into Giga Texas—plus foundations in preparation for many additional Giga Press machines.
During May/June 2022, Idra were assembling a 9000 tf Giga Press.[11] , two 9,000 ton presses were available at GigaTexas to cast Cybertruck rears, while Cybertruck front castings are cast on a 6500-ton press that is shared for casting Model Y frames. Total GigaPresses at Texas were two 9,000 ton plus four of the smaller presses.[12]
Fremont
In June 2020, permits for foundations to support the Giga Press at Fremont were issued with Tesla filing permit applications for construction work in preparation for Die-Casting Machine #2 (DCM2) in July 2022. During September 2020 DCM1 started producing trial runs of Model Y castings and DCM2 had been installed.
On 11 March 2021, one of the Fremont presses suffered a fire, caused by molten aluminium igniting hydraulic fluid. No injuries were reported.[13]
Germany
As of July 2020 plans for Giga Berlin included eight 6100 tf die casting machines. (Located at 52.397°N, 13.793°W.)
European Model Y cars have front and rear cast chassis sections. The first two European Giga Press machines were planned to be delivered to Giga Berlin by the start of 2021.[7]
Shanghai
By October 2020, three locally made LK Machinery Impress-Plus DCC6000 machines were undergoing assembly for Model Y production.
Fremont
In June 2020, permits for foundations to support the Giga Press at Fremont were issued with Tesla filing permit applications for construction work in preparation for Die-Casting Machine #2 (DCM2) in July 2022. During September 2020 DCM1 started producing trial runs of Model Y castings and DCM2 had been installed.
On 11 March 2021, one of the Fremont presses suffered a fire, caused by molten aluminium igniting hydraulic fluid. No injuries were reported.[13]
Germany
As of July 2020 plans for Giga Berlin included eight 6100 tf die casting machines. (Located at 52.397°N, 13.793°W.)
European Model Y cars have front and rear cast chassis sections. The first two European Giga Press machines were planned to be delivered to Giga Berlin by the start of 2021.[7]
Shanghai
By October 2020, three locally made LK Machinery Impress-Plus DCC6000 machines were undergoing assembly for Model Y production.[14] (Located at 30.872°N, 121.772°W.) As of October 2021, five machines were available.[15]
Texas
For Tesla Model Y car production at Giga Texas beginning in 2022, Tesla began to deploy a single-piece front in addition to the existing single-piece rear casting.[16]
During the night of 18/19 January 2021, concrete foundations for three Giga Press machines were poured at the Giga Texas factory location near Austin, Texas.[17][18] (30.22°N, -97.617°W)
On 21 January 2021 the first Giga Press components started to arrive on site.[19][20][21]
Glovitech
LK Technology delivered one Impress-Plus DCC 6000 machine for Glovitech of South Korea, installed in the Vân Trung Industrial Zone, Việt Yên, Bắc Giang Province, Vietnam.[24] The machine is used for producing large Faraday cages (radio-frequency enclosures) for 5G mobile base stations.[24] The machine was delivered in December 2020, and produced its first castings in March 2021.[25]
Japan
In June 2023 Toyota announced that it was adopting large casting technology for its electric vehicles.[26]
In 2023 Japanese auto parts supplier Ryobi announced plans to cast large electric-vehicle body parts and expects to reduce car body manufacturing costs by 20%.[27]
Volvo
By November 2023, orders had been placed for two 9000-tonnes-force Giga Press machines for a new Volvo electric vehicle factory at Košice, Slovakia.[28]
2.0
In September 2023 Tesla was reported to be considering a single-piece casting for entire underbody of its to-be-announced "small car", an easier task than single-casting their existing, larger models. This required learning how to use larger Giga Press machines, reduce mold design costs, and incorporate hollow subframes. Key innovations include using 3D printing to make cast prototypes with industrial sand.[29]
Making a large metal mold can cost $1.5 million. Typically, multiple iterations and tweaks are required, at great expense.[29]
Binder jet printers build casts out of layers of sand stabilized with a liquid binder at a fraction of the cost of using metal and in a fraction of the time. Hollow elements are created after the cast is made by removing sections of sand added during the casting. Parts cast in sand molds require different aluminium alloys and post-cast processing to meet safety and other requirements. Production casting would continue to use metal casts.[29]
The die cast press would need clamping force of 16,000 tons or more, among the largest in existence (but still significantly lower than a force of forging presses, such as 50,000 ton). This pressure might prevent the use of sand to make hollows. A different type of press would inject molten alloy more slowly that would allow sand cores and produce higher quality castings, although at a slower pace.
