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June 14 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor said this week it will adopt a technology Tesla pioneered known as "Gigacasting" as part of a strategy by the Japanese automaker to improve the performance – and lower the cost – of future electric vehicles (EVs).
Toyota is not alone in following Tesla's breakthrough.
Here's a look at Gigacasting and how the innovation is forcing automakers to scramble to match Tesla:
WHAT IS GIGACASTING?
The Giga Press is an aluminium die-casting machine adopted by Tesla at its factories in the U.S., China and Germany. The house-sized machines are able to produce aluminium parts far bigger than anything used before in auto manufacturing.
The "giga" in the name is a nod to Tesla's convention of calling its plants "Gigafactories". Other automakers have taken to calling them "megapresses", which also can refer to smaller but still massive machines.
In operation, the press takes in a shot of molten aluminium of 80 kg (176 lb) or more into a mould where it is formed into a part, released and then quickly cooled.
Tesla has developed an aluminium alloy that also allows it to skip the heat treating traditionally used to increase the strength of the cast part.
WHAT'S THE PAYOFF?
Typically more than a hundred individually stamped metal parts have been welded together to make a car body.
Fewer parts, lower costs and a simplified production line have contributed to Tesla's industry-leading profitability, analysts have said.
For Tesla, the use of a single component in the rear of the Model Y - its best-selling model - allowed it to cut related costs by 40%, the company has said.
In the Model 3, by using a single piece from the front and rear of the vehicle, Tesla was able to remove 600 robots from assembly, Elon Musk has said.
It can also cut a vehicle's weight – an important consideration for EVs where the battery pack alone can weigh more than 700 kg. And it has the potential to reduce waste and greenhouse emissions from a plant.
Toyota said it expected that using aluminium die-casting would eliminate dozens of sheet metal parts from assembly and reduce waste.
WHO MAKES THESE MACHINES?
Tesla sources its presses from Italy-based IDRA, which has been a unit of China's LK Industries since 2008.
Competitors of IDRA and LK include Buhler Group in Europe, Ube and Shibaura Machine in Japan, and Yizumi and Haitian in China.
The global aluminium die-casting market was worth almost $73 billion last year and is projected to top $126 billion by 2032, showed an AlixPartners analysis.