Tesla produces first Model Y mega cast at Giga Texas

[MEDICALJMP]

Tesla has produced the first Model Y megacast at Gigafactory Texas ahead of the start of production of the Model Y with the new structural battery pack technology.





Tesla structural battery pack


At its Battery Day event last year, Tesla not only unveiled its new 4680 battery cell but also a new battery architecture built around the new cell.


Inspired by the aerospace innovation of building airplane wings as fuel tanks instead of building the fuel tanks inside the wings, Tesla decided to build a battery pack that acts as a body structure, linking the front and rear underbody parts.


Currently, Tesla builds battery packs by combining cells into modules, which when put together form a battery pack. That battery pack is installed into the vehicle platform.


The difference with this new concept is that Tesla is not using modules and instead builds the entire battery pack as the structural platform of the vehicle, with the battery cells helping solidify the platform as one big unit.

Using its expertise in giant casting parts, Tesla can connect a big single-piece rear and front underbody to this structural battery pack.


This new design reduces the number of parts, the total mass of the battery pack, and therefore enables Tesla to improve efficiency and ultimately the range of its electric vehicles.


Earlier this year, we obtained the first picture of Tesla’s new structural battery pack made with 4680 cells.


Tesla megacasting


Now Tesla has started to produce the new megacasting parts that go on each side of the structural battery pack in order to create this new simple three-part vehicle platform.


Casting expert Axel Turck leaked an image of the first front-end megacast underbody produced by Tesla (via LinkedIn):

In the image, you can see casting experts wearing Tesla hard hats admiring the giant new piece of casting.


The auto industry has long been casting car parts, but it generally limits the size of the casts, and instead, it generally assembles smaller pieces together.


In the last few years, Tesla has been pushing the limits of how big casting parts can be in order to simplify the production process.


Turck mentioned that the megacast was produced in Texas by a Idra casting machine.


We reported earlier this year that Tesla took delivery of a Idra “gigapress” at Gigafactory Texas, and last week, the giant machine was spotted in operation for the first time in a drone video.


The expert also mentioned that the part weighs 130 kg (286 lbs).


The part is going to be used in the production of the Model Y at Gigafactory Texas, which is expected to start by the end of the year.


https://electrek.co/2021/05/17/tesla-produces-first-model-y-megacast-gigafactory-texas/

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[Bigvbear]

not to rain on the parade, but it's highly unlikely this was made at the Texas plant. Most likely it was the Berlin plant.

They don't have electricity at the Texas plant hooked up yet, nor could they at this point of the construction phase. I suppose you could use generators, but that would be ALOT of generator power.

The presses are also just one part of the process of the casting, the other is the forge oven to melt the aluminum among other pieces. Those have not been seen yet in any of the drone footage at the Texas plant. Nor have ANY robotics (you can see a robot arm in the background of the picture)

Also no fire suppression systems are in place either. Would be very foolish to attempt to do a high temp casting without that could burn the whole building to the ground.

 

[Crissa]

not to rain on the parade, but it's highly unlikely this was made at the Texas plant. Most likely it was the Berlin plant.

They don't have electricity at the Texas plant hooked up...

None of the guys in the photo are German.

They do have electricity in the plant in Texas.

Drone video shows the press moving on its own. There are giant propane tanks aside the building plus suppression systems sitting in the unfinished corner of the building footprint. We saw carts of aluminum ingots lined up inside the casting area last week. They weren't just being stored there.

And there have lights and temporary wiring in the casting area plugged in, it's along the ceiling which you can also see in drone shots.

I can't say if this picture is from Fremont or Austin, but they're wearing the right vests for Austin. I don't recognize the background, but there are more finished sections inside the factory building we cannot see in the drone footage.

-Crissa

 

[CyberT]

not to rain on the parade, but it's highly unlikely this was made at the Texas plant. Most likely it was the Berlin plant.

This is a screenshot of Joe Tegtmeyer's May 15th video showing the test castings in Austin.

 

[Crissa]

Oh! I hadn't watched any over the weekend, I didn't know they caught the blanks coming out! Nice.

-Crissa

 

[CyberT]

I particularly enjoyed the 5/15 video. He spent the whole video on the main factory instead of flying all over the rest of the property. It's a great watch if anyone has not seen the progress in Austin lately.

 

[MEDICALJMP]

not to rain on the parade, but it's highly unlikely this was made at the Texas plant. Most likely it was the Berlin plant.

They don't have electricity at the Texas plant hooked up yet, nor could they at this point of the construction phase. I suppose you could use generators, but that would be ALOT of generator power.

The presses are also just one part of the process of the casting, the other is the forge oven to melt the aluminum among other pieces. Those have not been seen yet in any of the drone footage at the Texas plant. Nor have ANY robotics (you can see a robot arm in the background of the picture)

Also no fire suppression systems are in place either. Would be very foolish to attempt to do a high temp casting without that could burn the whole building to the ground.

This was documented in two different web news sites. The original story reported it was from Berlin before people in the know corrected the report.

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