WATCH: Tesla releases impressive footage of robot pulling still smoking casting from Giga Press

Tesla has released impressive new footage of one of its robots pulling a still smoking large casting part from one of its Giga Press machines. This new casting approach from Tesla is going to be critical for the future of the company and especially new vehicle programs like the Cybertruck.

Over the last few years, Tesla has been heavily investing in casting and alloy technology to enable larger casted parts that have the capability to greatly simplify manufacturing. The company acquired several units of the biggest casting machine in the world.

Tesla’s first Giga Press, which was installed at the Fremont factory, was put into operation in 2020. The machine was the first of its kind at the time and has a clamping force of 55 000 to 61 000 kilonewtons.

Tesla has already been producing the Model Y with a single rear body piece that replaced 70 different parts in the vehicle.

That was Tesla’s first major step into large cast parts, and the automaker has since been heavily investing in large casting technology.

The automaker took deliveries of several more giant casting machines at its Gigafactory Texas, and Tesla has started producing the Model Y at the plant with both front and rear single-piece casting.
This approach has greatly simplified Tesla’s body shops, bringing the number of robots per unit of production capacity down significantly.

To get a better understanding of how this casting technology works, Tesla has released an impressive new video of one of those giant cast parts coming out of the Giga Press. You can see the single part, which is basically one-fourth of an entire car body, still smoking after coming out of the press.
Now Tesla is going all-in on the giant casting technology.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has since confirmed that the machine is going to be used for the Cybertruck body at Gigafactory Texas. Since Tesla has been moving in that direction, several other automakers have reportedly reached out to IDRA and other casting machine makers to do the same.

However, Tesla is believed to have a significant advantage since it has been both working on this technology for a long time and also developed new alloys to work better with larger cast parts.

Tesla’s supplier for its Giga Press, the IDRA Group, has hinted that it is currently busy building yet another giant machine. Photos of the new contraption were recently shared on social media, to much excitement from the electric vehicle community.

IDRA posted a photo of its new machine, which was being assembled, on its official LinkedIn page. The machine is massive, and based on the image, it seemed to be about the size of the 9 000 ton Giga Press that would be used for the Tesla Cybertruck’s production.

Images and videos of IDRA’s gargantuan 9 000 ton Giga Press have been heavily featured by the company on its social media pages this year. Last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the machine would be used for the Cybertruck body. A completed 9 000 ton Giga Press was packed and shipped to Giga Texas at the end of last year, as per IDRA’s LinkedIn posts.

IDRA’s 9 000 ton Giga Press has been a point of pride for the die-casting machine maker. The machine was featured heavily in IDRA’s open house this past June, and the company also highlighted its construction in a series of promotional videos. Considering the challenges involved in the design and construction of the Giga Press, however, IDRA should definitely be proud of its creation.