Giga Press

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The Giga Press is a family of very large aluminum die‑casting machines built for Tesla, originally by the Italian company Idra Group. They are some of the biggest high‑pressure die casters in use, designed to form large car chassis parts in a single piece.

Each Giga Press is huge: about 410–430 tonnes in weight, and its overall footprint is roughly 19.5 m by 5.9 m by 5.3 m (64 by 19 by 17 ft). The machines can deliver a roughly 80 kg (180 lb) slug of molten aluminum into a mold at high speed, with a typical cycle time of 80–90 seconds. That allows about 40–45 completed castings per hour, or around 1,000 castings per day per machine. The clamping force for base models ranges from about 55,000 to 61,000 kN (roughly 5,600–6,200 tons).

How it works is simplified here: molten aluminum is melted from ingots, purified and degassed, then fed into a mold in a controlled way. The mold is closed quickly, the metal is injected at high speed, and the casting is held until it solidifies. The part is then removed, quenched to cool it rapidly, trimmed, inspected (including X‑ray checks), and prepared for CNC machining. The process uses a nitrogen blanket to prevent oxide formation, argon degassing to remove impurities, and a small amount of lubricant and a soybean‑oil release agent to help parts come out of the mold.

Tesla began using a custom OL 6100 CS Giga Press for Model Y rear chassis castings in late 2020. By 2021, several presses were installed across Tesla’s sites: Fremont, Giga Shanghai, Giga Berlin, and later Giga Texas, with foundations prepared and new presses added over time. As of late 2023, two 9,000‑ton presses were operational at Giga Texas for Cybertruck rear castings, while the front sections were cast on a 6,500‑ton press shared with Model Y frames. In total, Texas housed two 9,000‑ton presses plus four smaller presses.

Tesla’s use of Giga Presses has spurred other automakers to explore large‑scale casting. In parallel, ideas for even larger single‑piece or multi‑piece front and underbody castings have included experimenting with sand‑based casting prototypes and binder‑jet printing to reduce cost and iteration time. By 2024, Tesla was reported to be holding plans for single‑piece casting on some programs but continuing with three‑piece casting for its current lineup, citing market and profitability considerations.