Only 35 high end Schuler servo stamping presses exist in auto manufacturing worldwide and the one at Tesla is the first one in the US. The equipment has allowed Tesla to form unique parts, like the Model 3 front fender, which engineers say has greater depth in a single piece of stamped steel than any other fender in production. Tesla chose to build a factory to handle all of its [...]
A slideshow of photos taken at I-CAR’s booth at SEMA 2018 is at the bottom of an article containing information about AHSS content in 2019/2020 vehicles. These photos highlight sections of the 2019 Silverado body, showing several parts labeled with strength levels and grade. You can see several 780MPa and 980MPa steel parts, as well as some UHSS parts. GMs strategy on their new truck is to use 6XXX aluminum [...]
Every few months, we at EQS and 4M send out a newsletter covering info related to the sheet metal forming industries. Topics in a recent newsletter included material selection strategies at automakers, friction stir welding, servo presses, Tesla build quality, and laser blanking. If you want to get on the distribution list, please sign up on the EQS website. Here's a reprint of that newsletter from the 4th quarter of [...]
Abhay (Abe) Vadhavkar of CAR writes about the impact of sourcing tools overseas on the US tool & die sector. The report states that new tooling sourced in Low Cost Countries such as China and Taiwan may cost 20 percent lower than US sourced tooling, with similar time-to-completion, even with shipping. Among other things, the report highlights the advanced age of US tool & die workers and potential for US-based shops to become [...]
Nissan's plant in Smyrna, TN makes 640,000 vehicles a year, which is more than 1 per second. The stamping plant goes through 15 tons of steel and over half a ton of aluminum EVERY HOUR. automotivemanufacturingsolutions.com/focus/stamp-of-approval
