CT Body Manufacturing Process

VolklKatana

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So I have been pondering this for a couple days and wanted to get some of your guys's ideas as well. This is a hard question to verbalize so stick with me here....

It has been stated by Elon CT will be built using the score and fold method. Also knowing how other items similarly (appliance cabinet) are built, I have serious questions about how this will be accomplished. Appliance cabinets start off as 40 inch or so roll of metal that is then cut, bent and folded to create the cabinet that goes around the contents of the appliance. This leaves you with an appliance depth of around 36 inches.

CT, I assume will be folded to create cavities that may be a couple inches thick. Prior to folding, this piece of metal would need to be the the length and width of the vehicle with extra added in to fold the supports into the structure ! How could this even work? If the metal is as rigid as they claim, there is no way this will be delivered in roll form. Even if sheet blanks came by train, youre looking at a max width of, what, 5 feet? if stood on end, maybe 12'? I have to imagine there is 0 possibility of the body actually being 1 piece. If it is, we are talking about a piece of metal that would have to be AT LEAST:
(all guesses on rough dimensions)
48" height x 2(for each side) + 12" added for folding of tubular supports= 108"
width 80" lets assume single piece here, no supports
length 231" + at least another 12" for supports = 243"

If truly a single piece youre looking at starting piece of metal that is 188" x 243" or 16' x 20'

I dont see this as feasible, so how are they going to accomplish this?

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TyPope

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I'm pretty sure the thick stainless steel will be welded to thinner material that has been stamped. The two, combined, will be the exoskeleton. You can see it on the Tesla page. The sides, without the doors will be a single piece, I suppose and the width of that piece of material could be a little tough. I don't know how SpaceX gets the stainless steel they use buy they could do the CT the same way.
 
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VolklKatana

VolklKatana

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I'm pretty sure the thick stainless steel will be welded to thinner material that has been stamped. The two, combined, will be the exoskeleton. You can see it on the Tesla page. The sides, without the doors will be a single piece, I suppose and the width of that piece of material could be a little tough. I don't know how SpaceX gets the stainless steel they use buy they could do the CT the same way.
Would that still fit for the definition of an exoskeleton?? ?‍♂
 
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59sjordan

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I'm pretty sure the thick stainless steel will be welded to thinner material that has been stamped. The two, combined, will be the exoskeleton. You can see it on the Tesla page. The sides, without the doors will be a single piece, I suppose and the width of that piece of material could be a little tough. I don't know how SpaceX gets the stainless steel they use buy they could do the CT the same way.
I'm sure the supply of the stainless steel was part of the decision process for locating the new factory in Austin TX. Very much in the proximity of the Space X factory in Boca Chica
 

Sirfun

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Let me just start of with: Where there's a will there's a way! Tesla has already custom built at least the one shown at The Peterson Museum. They will build it with several different patterns, that will be welded into one unibody. That could have had some influence on the announcement of 304L SS. The weld quality and availability of 3mm probably had something to do with it. When they build the factory I'd imagine most of the build process for building the body will be robotic.
 


Mini2nut

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I see rows of different laser scoring, folding and adhesive robot machines at the new assembly plant. The tooling and manufacturing process for the monocoque body will be unique. The engineers will be thinking outside of the box for sure.

I am guessing that the inner structure that the exoskeleton is attached to such as the door openings, B-pillars, floor pans, etc. will be thinner SS that could be stamped into irregular shapes.


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DallasEd

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SS or any body panel is stamped and welding is old tec
Bonding like Tesla M3 MY S X all bonded. Stronger better life faster less expensive to metal bond.
Just like at home
I metal prep the surface to enhance metal bond.
Truth
Welding weakens the metal so spot welds are to be avoided. As a example on commercial aircraft any welds are generally not done. You can weld some 6061 or 7075 nose cowls but I as an engineer seeing 1000s of cracked welds where they tig weld repair and re weld and re weld.
 
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Mini2nut

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I concur. I see industrial adhesives being used to join Cybertruck panels together using robotic machines for application.
 


Mini2nut

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Tesla engineers are probably going to copy the aerospace industry which uses a lot of structural adhesives to join panels together. Industrial adhesives today are pretty amazing.
 

Sirfun

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Tesla engineers are probably going to copy the aerospace industry which uses a lot of structural adhesives to join panels together. Industrial adhesives today are pretty amazing.
That would be interesting. I worked in construction and retired 5 years ago. Everything I worked with was always welded, and I don't know anything about adhesives. That would be interesting from a body repair perspective. I wonder how easy it would be to replace panels that would be damaged in a collision. 3mm stainless is very strong material.
 
 




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