Another said the whole design process for a large metal mold would typically cost about $4 million.
To overcome the obstacles, Tesla turned to firms that make test molds out of industrial sand with 3D printers.
To cast subframes with hollows as part of one gigacasting, Tesla plans to place solid sand cores printed by the binder jets within the overall mold.
But despite that greater flexibility achieved in both the design process and the complexity of the large frames, there was still one more major hurdle to clear.
And once Tesla is happy with the prototype mold, it can then invest in a final metal one for mass production.
Persons:
Elon Musk, Tesla, Musk, Terry Woychowski, Woychowski, Tesla's, David Clarke
Organizations:
Caresoft, U.S, GM, Reuters, Thomson
Locations:
AUSTIN, Texas, Britain, Germany, Japan, United States