By Giulio Piovaccari
TRAVAGLIATO, Italy, Feb 10 (Reuters) – By replacing around 60 welded components with a single module, gigantic aluminum casting machines made by companies such as Tesla supplier IDRA Group are helping carmakers to simplify manufacturing and reduce costs by up to 40% in some areas.
Tesla has pioneered the use of mass casting machines, also known as gigapresses, to manufacture large individual parts of vehicle bodies, streamlining production and reducing the work even of robots.
This has helped it become the most profitable manufacturer of battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
Critics say the process poses risks to quality and flexibility, as a single defect can compromise an entire module and make it difficult to fix if something goes wrong.
But with the industry struggling to preserve profit margins amid rising commodity prices, automakers including Toyota, General Motors, Hyundai, Volvo Cars and Chinese electric vehicle startup Nio are turning to companies like IDRA to ask for help
“The basic idea was to provide a technology that could simplify the car production process,” IDRA CEO Riccardo Ferrario told Reuters in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Travagliato, north of ‘Italy.
Currently, batteries account for 25% to 40% of the total cost of BEVs.
“You have to make the rest cost less,” Ferrario said.
Automakers using aluminum casting machines claim they can cut the investment needed to build chassis, the second most expensive component in a vehicle after the engine, by 40%, and the average cost of its parts in 30%, Ferrario said.
“It’s a way to make BEVs something for every pocket,” he said.
IDRA, which was acquired by Chinese group LK Industries in 2008, has been developing gigapresses since 2016. Competitors of IDRA and LK include Buhler Group in Europe, Ube Corp. and Shibaura Machine in Japan, as well as Yizumi and Haitian in China.
GIGAPRESS 9,000
Die casting of metal and plastic has been used extensively in manufacturing, but its application to large aluminum bodies in automobile manufacturing is relatively new.
The global aluminum die casting market was worth nearly $73 billion last year and is expected to surpass $126 billion by 2032, according to an AlixPartners analysis based on data from Apollo Reports.
Aluminum is prized for its light weight and is also used for other auto parts, including engines. The average metal content in cars produced in Europe rose by 20% to 179 kilograms in the three years to 2019, and is expected to rise to almost 200 kilograms by 2025, a study commissioned by the lobby group shows European Aluminum.
IDRA’s newest and largest gigapress, the 9,000, is the size of a small house and produces a clamping force of over 9,000 tons.
The company, which had revenue of 100 million euros ($108 million) in 2021, does not disclose its clients. But after posting a video of the first Gigapress 9,000 ready to ship, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said it was for his company’s new cyber truck.
Tesla already operates gigapresses at all its facilities, including in Gruenheide near Berlin, where it says it can produce a Model Y in 10 hours, about three times faster than electric cars built by competitors.
Ferrario said IDRA had contracts with three automakers and other “Tier 1” parts manufacturers. South Korea’s Hyundai Motor is among them, sources familiar with the matter said.
Ralf Bechmann of manufacturing consultancy EFESO said the benefits of die casting would push it “to be applied to an increasing number of new BEV vehicle models, also by other manufacturers”.
Front and rear body bottoms cast by gigapresses are now combined with battery packs to form a three-piece chassis for BEVs.
“I bet 80% of automakers will use gigapresses by 2035, at least for BEV cars based on new platforms,” Ferrario said. “But the real question is: Will we need even bigger gigapresses?”
However, not all automakers are convinced, with EFESO’s Bechmann warning that die-casting large modules required the product design to be “super solid.”
“Fixing design flaws is much easier with a body made up of several small parts rather than a single module,” he said.
After initially considering die-casting for its upcoming Trinity model, Volkswagen has backed off, while BMW has never expressed interest.
Ferrario said the auto industry tended to be conservative and that no one liked to change established processes, but he rejected the idea that die casting posed a risk to jobs at automakers, and he noted that body manufacturing was already highly automated.
“The real problem will be with the companies that supply these small parts replaced by our modules,” he said.
($1 = 0.9272 euros) (Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari, Editing by Mark Potter)
