JOURNALMATERIALSBREAKINGTHE MOULD:WHAT MEGACASTINGMEANS FORREPAIRWith many manufacturers now following the lead of Tesla, Darren Bright, PrincipalEngineer – Automotive Repair at Thatcham Research, examines whether mega castingis gaining momentum and the impact that the vehicle manufacturing productionprocess could have on repairers.You might 昀椀nd it rivetingto bolt together vehicleparts but big changesare coming to thistraditional aspect ofbody repair.Technicians may soon need to adapttheir approach in response to vehiclemanufacturers’ investment in megacasting production processes.Mega castings are manufactured usinglarge high-pressure die-cast (HPDC)machines, where molten metal isinjected into moulds to produce largedie-cast aluminium body parts, suchas an entire rear one-piece chassisassembly.Known in some quarters as gigacasting, the technique originallytook off with Tesla using HPDC tomanufacture the one-piece aluminiumchassis sub-assemblies in its ModelY. Some car executives and analystsbelieve Tesla’s process is setting a newbenchmark for building cars.Other vehicle manufacturers includingToyota, Volkswagen and Volvo arereportedly following suit. Volvo’s28Geely-owned stablemate Zeekr isusing HPDC for the 009. NIO is alsoincorporating it into the ET5 model.When you consider that mega castingcombines anywhere between 70 and100 individual panels of the bodystructure into one large chassissub-assembly part, it’s easy to see whycompanies are investigatingthe process.Many questionsremain about thefeasibility andcomplexity ofassessing megacasting damagethat will causeuncertainty aroundclaims and repairoptions.While it isn’t possible to compare exactrepair costs, a replacement part fora section of the Model Y mega castis almost 50% cheaper than a typicalsteel construction equivalent section.The latter often resembles the layersof an onion: you need to peel awayseveral levels of material before youget to the damage, building in highercost of repair and increasing the claim.Price is therefore a big factor in megacasting gaining momentum. So is thepromise of shorter production times.There are other potential materialgains, with the use of lighter materialscounterbalancing the additional weightof new technology that’s included inelectric vehicles – not least the battery.Meanwhile, vehicle manufacturers arequick to suggest that mega castingreduces carbon footprint, helpingthem to hit sustainability targets. Fromwhat we know so far, mega castingalso introduces additional stabilisingelements such as nickel into vehicles,increasing the recyclability and integrityof parts for potential future use.THE ASSESSORS JOURNAL | SPRING 2024 | www.iaea-online.org/news/the-assessor
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