swengl

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Origami, is how the designer described it. Creased and folded and welded exactly, not stamped. Some attachments may be stamped, as seen in the prototype, but those are connecting pieces. And then other connecting or bridging pieces are cast.

-Crissa
I really hope that they will post a video of the folding machine in action. This is the first thing to pop in my head when I think of folding machines:
Leaks that Musk publicly replies to?

Color me skeptical, Tesla loves their controlled leaks.
It's a good substitute for actual marketing and the budget can remain zero.
Sponsored

 

greggertruck

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Ope. Sacmi has a plant in Mexico very nearby an Ecsar location. Grasping for anything to connect, just to make sense. Away with my internet points, I'm just desperate for updates and to know WHAT we have coming. Speculation: Ecsar has the Sacmi Imola machine and Tesla went and validated it with a couple bodies. Machine has now arrived and Tesla moved the bodies up to Texas. 🥓
Tesla Cybertruck New Cybertruck Body Shell photos taken INSIDE Giga Texas! 🤳 1666807024929
 

greggertruck

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I really hope that they will post a video of the folding machine in action. This is the first thing to pop in my head when I think of folding machines:

It's a good substitute for actual marketing and the budget can remain zero.
I'd bet new drone video shows manufacturing and that. It's probably tough enough to figure out that they can show it off. Heck, they put 3 years into it(at least)

Wonder how long they had A truck for before we knew.
 

Ogre

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The big questionmark around any kind of industrial folding machine is throughput. How many trucks can these machines fold per hour. A Gigapress can crank out more than 250,000 castings per year. This is inline with Musks verbalized target of 250,000 Cybertrucks a year. That’s a little less than 1 truck/ 2 minutes. If you are operating 18 hours/ day, that’s 1/ 90 seconds.

I have yet to see a folding brake setup that can match that, so perhaps there will be a series of them or a few that operate in parallel.
 

Sirfun

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The big questionmark around any kind of industrial folding machine is throughput. How many trucks can these machines fold per hour. A Gigapress can crank out more than 250,000 castings per year. This is inline with Musks verbalized target of 250,000 Cybertrucks a year. That’s a little less than 1 truck/ 2 minutes. If you are operating 18 hours/ day, that’s 1/ 90 seconds.

I have yet to see a folding brake setup that can match that, so perhaps there will be a series of them or a few that operate in parallel.
Kinda like this:
 


Ogre

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Kinda like this:
That took about 2 minutes and it was very light metal and a very small (relatively) part. I don‘t think this sort of machine would scale up to Cybertruck size.

I think a bit more likely is 5 - 10 machines set up to do 1-2 folds each in series. Each taking about 5-10 seconds before passing it along. This would enable a more fluid flow and cuts or even welds between folds.

(Total guesswork here!)
 

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That took about 2 minutes and it was very light metal and a very small (relatively) part. I don‘t think this sort of machine would scale up to Cybertruck size.

I think a bit more likely is 5 - 10 machines set up to do 1-2 folds each in series. Each taking about 5-10 seconds before passing it along. This would enable a more fluid flow and cuts or even welds between folds.

(Total guesswork here!)
Yes, that was much smaller and way lighter. But it is an example of how automated press brakes work. The CT would be a lot less complicated, but WAY heavier material that would be done all with automation.
It will obviously be some purposely built machinery, to produce the CT bodies. With a separate machine to produce the tailgate and ramp. With automation Tesla could make a stack of Stainless Steel sheets, into Truck bodies pretty quickly.
 

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Yes, that was much smaller and way lighter. But it is an example of how automated press brakes work. The CT would be a lot less complicated, but WAY heavier material that would be done all with automation.
It will obviously be some purposely built machinery, to produce the CT bodies. With a separate machine to produce the tailgate and ramp. With automation Tesla could make a stack of Stainless Steel sheets, into Truck bodies pretty quickly.
It would be a lot less complicated. Maybe just 8 folds which are parallel or nearly so with a couple folds on each end.

If those wrapped things are an example, the whole body is just one folded piece then maybe they laser cut the windows, vault, and frunk out?

Seems like a lot of waste that way.
 

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That took about 2 minutes and it was very light metal and a very small (relatively) part. I don‘t think this sort of machine would scale up to Cybertruck size.
That's what they said about casting machines.

-Crissa
 

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That took about 2 minutes and it was very light metal and a very small (relatively) part. I don‘t think this sort of machine would scale up to Cybertruck size.
That's what they said about casting machines.

-Crissa
This is the difference of Tesla vs most of the rest of the manufacturing world...

Most say
I don't think...
Tesla asks if there are any physics laws preventing it. If not... Let's make it work then find out what the pros and cons are.
 


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One big one that can do all the bends at once. An inner mold and an outer press to form the shell around the inner mold. No floor, remember. So they can just press one sheet over a super hard mold from top to fold sides down, then quickly press from all sides to form the shape of all sides with a static mold at the bottom. Then just use the robot arm to lift the whole exoskeleton off and onto the robotic sled. A second one to do the bed floor and inner walls to mount to the rear casting. A third to do the tailgate and hood. 15 seconds max!
 
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The real question in the manufacturing process is when it is roll hardened.

Bending hardenied SS will weaken it. Any welding causes discolouration and the need to fix the finish. I'm also not sure what welding will achieve that an internal glued in structure can't do better. All 8 doors are just flapping in the wind structurally, its just the front and rear fenders theat do some structural load bearing.
 
 




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