Tesla Develops 12,000-Ton Giga Press for Production of the One-Piece Car Body

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Richard V.

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The car from a single casting is something Musk has talked about and it is likely to happen eventually… on an infinite timeline.

Small (tiny) chance the rumored 25k Tesla will be built that way.
Here is what I am thinking about for possible timelines for the use of the 12,000 ton Giga Press for a Tesla compact vehicle (row 9) using one-piece for the main chassis part.

Tesla Cybertruck Tesla Develops 12,000-Ton Giga Press for Production of the One-Piece Car Body Tesla vehicle progression since 2009


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People keep talking about this as if the idea of a unibody car were brand new.

A unibody frame is a giant single piece when they are done manufacturing it. The big difference between the gigapress and a normal unibody frame is simply the way it’s manufactured. A gigapress makes one giant piece all in one go. A normal unibody frame is also one solid piece. It is just created by welding lots of smaller parts together.

I don’t think the Tesla single piece casting is any more or less prone to getting totaled than any other modern unibody car.
 
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People keep talking about this as if the idea of a unibody car were brand new.

A unibody frame is a giant single piece when they are done manufacturing it. The big difference between the gigapress and a normal unibody frame is simply the way it’s manufactured. A gigapress makes one giant piece all in one go. A normal unibody frame is also one solid piece. It is just created by welding lots of smaller parts together.

I don’t think the Tesla single piece casting is any more or less prone to getting totaled than any other modern unibody car.
I used to own an E-Type Jaguar (1969) which was a unibody vehicle. Yes, people have been able to fix and restore them in all sort of conditions.
 

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I used to own an E-Type Jaguar (1969) which was a unibody vehicle. Yes, people have been able to fix and restore them in all sort of conditions.
A lot of that has to do with cost of the vehicle versus cost of repairs. If a $25k Tesla gets totaled, 70% of the cars value is likely in the motors and the batteries. I think it would come down to simple economics. There is a lot of money scrapping a totaled Tesla. If the frame gets trashed but the battery is intact, that battery and motors are still worth a lot of cash.
 


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A lot of that has to do with cost of the vehicle versus cost of repairs. If a $25k Tesla gets totaled, 70% of the cars value is likely in the motors and the batteries. I think it would come down to simple economics. There is a lot of money scrapping a totaled Tesla. If the frame gets trashed but the battery is intact, that battery and motors are still worth a lot of cash.
Perhaps the cost and logic of major repairs will change based on this new technology. Save all the "organs" and transplant them on a new one-piece chassis part from Tesla for a low cost. This might change the definition of totaled.
 
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I hear IDRA is planning a 15,000 ton press to make windshield wipers
Is that for a dome on the Mars colony? I would put that one at 2033.
 

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People keep talking about this as if the idea of a unibody car were brand new.

A unibody frame is a giant single piece when they are done manufacturing it. The big difference between the gigapress and a normal unibody frame is simply the way it’s manufactured. A gigapress makes one giant piece all in one go. A normal unibody frame is also one solid piece. It is just created by welding lots of smaller parts together.

I don’t think the Tesla single piece casting is any more or less prone to getting totaled than any other modern unibody car.
They're really different animals. A standard unibody, like the VW beetle, is all stamped steel, welded and bolted to a pan. Many man-hours go into welding up/bolting the suspension and other features. The 12,000 ton "bigapress" will make it in one shot, out of an aluminum/mag alloy, saving a lot of time (money) in the process. What we don't know are the implications for the ability to repair after the frame gets busted up. Steel can be hammered back into shape, welded. Aluminum, not so much.
 


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They're really different animals. A standard unibody, like the VW beetle, is all stamped steel, welded and bolted to a pan. Many man-hours go into welding up/bolting the suspension and other features. The 12,000 ton "bigapress" will make it in one shot, out of an aluminum/mag alloy, saving a lot of time (money) in the process. What we don't know are the implications for the ability to repair after the frame gets busted up. Steel can be hammered back into shape, welded. Aluminum, not so much.
I wonder, will an aluminum unibody get painted?
 

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It would be interesting to see if replacement "parts" for a unibody framed vehicle could be 3d printed on demand to match exactly what was needed for each accident. If there were a way to scan in the damaged portion of the frame, exactly match what was needed (using some sort of AI/ML backed system), print it, and then cut out the damaged section and replace it, it would cut down on the storage of replacement frame sections and save on storage/transportation costs (and environmental impact of making/transporting the parts to the required destinations). The body shops would need to have the 3D printer and raw materials as well as the damage scanner (and the computer system to identify the damage), but the lead time for repair would be almost zero. Is it feasible IRL?
 

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If you got a hole in plaster, just cut out around it, take that piece and trace the replacement shape.

Just cut out a section of metal and replace it with stock sections. (as mentioned in this thread) Tesla may even have the dots where to cut.


Minimal time on tools, cut and paste a new one. That's it.

Interesting thought for a 3D printer for an independent shop fixing every brand in the world made since 1903.

Tesla owned repair shops only need to keep Tesla sections. And it's at cost.
 

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What we don't know are the implications for the ability to repair after the frame gets busted up. Steel can be hammered back into shape, welded. Aluminum, not so much.
You can't hammer a unibody back into shape and have it retain its safety rating. The strength is gone.

You can't replace the stamped and welded unibody in current cars. I have owned five cars in my life. Only one wasn't unibody, and it was twenty-five years old already when it came into my possession. This is a done deal. I don't know any non-unibody car I can buy new today.

I don't understand why people think a cast unibody would be different/worse.

Perhaps the cost and logic of major repairs will change based on this new technology. Save all the "organs" and transplant them on a new one-piece chassis part from Tesla for a low cost. This might change the definition of totaled.
People don't do that because it's expensive. Instead, the 'organs' are donated to other cars so their repairs are cheaper.

-Crissa


I wonder, will an aluminum unibody get painted?
Yes. Usually it's hard anodized. ...I haven't seen Tesla doing this to their body pieces, though. It may be just air-anodized. They did build a big dip pool for their Austin/Berlin Model Y lines but I'm not sure if that's it or not.
 
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This all really points more to the fact that we need to start thinking about effectively recycling the car. If you damage an ICE car so badly frame is damaged, you can rarely get more than a few thousand dollars from the resulting mess that’s left over.

With an EV, unless the battery is damaged severely, that battery is worth a lot of money. On a Tesla, the motors and other drivetrain components are also worth quite a bit.

Rather than worrying about the cost to repair a cheap to press out aluminum body, we need good/ cost effective ways to salvage that stuff so it can be put into use. I can see a huge market for repurposed Tesla car batteries and motors. Everything from motorized RV trailers to home power storage to dune buggies.
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