By changing round 60 welded parts with a single module, gigantic aluminium die casting machines made by the likes of Tesla provider IDRA Group are serving to carmakers to simplify manufacturing and reduce prices by as much as 40% in some areas.
Tesla has pioneered the usage of huge casting machines, also called gigapresses, to make massive single items of auto underbodies, streamline manufacturing and cut back the work of even robots.
This has helped it turn into probably the most worthwhile battery electrical automobile (BEV) maker.
Critics say the method poses high quality and adaptability dangers, as a single flaw can compromise an entire module, and make fixing tougher if one thing goes flawed.
However with the business struggling to protect revenue margins amid surging uncooked supplies costs, carmakers together with Toyota, Common Motors, Hyundai, Volvo Automobiles and Chinese language electrical automobile startup Nio are turning to corporations like IDRA for assist.
“The essential concept was to offer a know-how that would simplify the automobile manufacturing course of,” IDRA normal supervisor Riccardo Ferrario informed Reuters in an interview on the firm’s headquarters in Travagliato, northern Italy.
Battery packs at the moment make up 25%-40% of the whole value of BEVs.
“That you must make the remainder value much less,” Ferrario mentioned.
Automakers utilizing aluminium casting machines declare they will cut back investments wanted to construct chassis – a automobile’s second costliest element after the engine – by 40%, and the common value of their elements by 30%, Ferrario mentioned.
“It is a option to finally make BEVs one thing for all pockets,” he mentioned.
IDRA, which was taken over by Chinese language group LK Industries in 2008, has been growing gigapresses since 2016. Opponents of IDRA and LK embody Buhler Group in Europe, Ube Corp. and Shibaura Machine in Japan, in addition to Yizumi and Haitian in China.
Steel and plastic die casting has been largely utilized in manufacturing, however its utility to massive aluminium underbodies in carmaking is comparatively new.
The worldwide aluminium die casting market was value nearly $73 billion final 12 months and is projected to prime $126 billion by 2032, in accordance with an AlixPartners evaluation based mostly on Apollo Stories knowledge.
Aluminium is prized for its gentle weight, and can also be used for different automobile elements together with engines. The common content material of the metallic in European produced automobiles rose 20% to 179 kilograms within the three years to 2019, and is predicted to extend to nearly 200 kilograms by 2025, a research commissioned by foyer group European Aluminium reveals.
IDRA’s latest and largest gigapress – the 9,000 – is the dimensions of a small home and produces a clamping pressure of over 9,000 tons.
The corporate, which made 100 million euros ($108 million) in revenues in 2021, doesn’t disclose its prospects. However after it posted a video of the primary Gigapress 9,000 prepared for transport, Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned it was for his firm’s new cybertruck.
Tesla already operates gigapresses in all its amenities, together with in Gruenheide, close to Berlin, the place it says it will probably churn out a Mannequin Y in 10 hours – about thrice sooner than electrical automobiles constructed by rivals.
Ferrario mentioned IDRA had contracts with three automakers and as many ‘Tier 1’ elements makers. South Korea’s Hyundai Motor is amongst them, sources acquainted with the matter mentioned.
Ralf Bechmann of producing guide EFESO mentioned the advantages of die casting would push it “to be utilized to an growing variety of new fashions of BEV automobiles, additionally by different producers”.
Entrance and rear underbodies solid by gigapresses are actually mixed with battery packs to kind a three-piece chassis for BEVs.
“I wager 80% of automakers will use gigapresses by 2035, at the least for BEV automobiles based mostly on new platforms,” Ferrario mentioned. “However the true query is: will we want even greater gigapresses?”
But not all automakers are satisfied, and EFESO’s Bechmann cautioned that enormous module die casting required product design to be “tremendous strong”.
“Fixing design flaws is far simpler with a physique made up of a number of small elements quite than a single module,” he mentioned.
After initially contemplating die casting for its upcoming Trinity mannequin, Volkswagen has backtracked, whereas BMW has by no means expressed an curiosity.
Ferrario mentioned the auto business tended to be conservative and that nobody favored upending established processes, however he rejected concept that die casting posed a threat to jobs at carmakers, noting body-making was already extremely automated.
“The actual challenge might be with companies supplying these little elements changed by our modules,” he mentioned.
Additionally Learn:
In a convention name to debate Tesla’s fourth-quarter outcomes, Musk and different executives outlined plans to reshape the electrical automobile (EV) maker’s value base after slashing costs as much as 20%, a transfer some analysts see as the primary shot in a worth battle.
