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Originally published on Tesla Oracle.
IDRA Group is a Tesla supplier that provides the automaker with ultra-large Giga Presses or Giga Casting machines. This Italian Giga Press manufacturer has been teasing an upcoming 9,000-ton Giga Casting machine for the last couple of weeks.
IDRA posted a video of this giant casting machine getting assembled. This video was shared on YouTube and the company’s other social media channels at the end of last month.
IDRA 9,000-ton Giga Press machine (NEO 9000) for making the Cybertruck unibody. Credit: IDRA Group / YouTube (video below).
As this video started to drive a discussion momentum within the online Tesla Community, Tesla CEO Elon Musk ended the rumors by confirming that the world’s first 9,000-ton Giga Press is actually for the Cybertruck body.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 31, 2022
On 16th March 2021, IDRA Group announced that they had secured the first order for an 8,000-ton Giga Casting machine from Tesla and the company has started working on this project.
But the General Manager of IDRA Group Riccardo Ferrario confirmed in his video message at the time that this 8,000-ton version is for the Cybertruck’s large underbody castings, not the body of the electric pickup truck.
After a few days of this announcement, a drone video of the then under construction Tesla Giga Texas showed that the automaker had already set up the foundations for the 8,000-ton Cybertruck underbody Giga Casting machines at the factory (screenshot below).
Foundations (footings) for the 8,000-ton Cybertruck Giga Casting machines at Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas.
Let’s clear the confusion here, the new 9,000-ton Giga Casting machine by IDRA is not for the Cybertruck underbody castings — it is for the Cybertruck body shell as Elon Musk has confirmed in his tweet (above).
The body of the Cybertruck is an exoskeleton unibody shell that has the pickup truck’s cockpit integrated into it. Tesla CEO Elon Musk had already shared this information at the time of the Cybertruck unveiling back in 2019 (see Tesla’s official illustration below).
Tesla Cybertruck exoskeleton (unibody shell). Credit: Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.
Since the outer shell of the Cybertruck body is made of 30X cold-rolled stainless steel, a super-large Giga Press was needed to create this unibody with immense pressure. It’s hard to mold a hardened stainless steel sheet to give it a shape or form, therefore we now have the 9,000-ton Giga Press.
At the start of 2021, Elon Musk said, “With our giant casting machines, we are literally trying to make full-size cars in the same way that toy cars are made.”
Perhaps, this new trend in automotive manufacturing will start with the Cybertruck production to make the unibody using a 9,000-ton Giga Press. IDRA aims to fully unveil this giant machine in a couple of weeks.
Tesla is already successfully using the 6,000-ton Giga Casting machines at all of its factories to produce the Model Y-front and rear underbody single-piece castings. These are currently the largest Giga Casting machines used in mass vehicle production.
Hopefully, we will be watching the new 8,000-ton and 9,000-ton versions of these giant casting machines in action next year at Tesla Giga Texas as Cybertruck production starts at this factory.
Iqtidar Ali writes for X Auto about Tesla and electric vehicles. A true car enthusiast since his childhood, he covers his stories with an utmost passion, which is now guided by the mission towards sustainability. With over 1 decade of website development experience, he’s also our IT resource at hand. He also writes about tech stuff at UXTechPlus.com occasionally. Iqtidar can easily be reached on Twitter @IqtidarAlii (DM open for tips, feedback or a friendly message) or via email: iqtidar@xautoworld.com.
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