The stainless steel body of Tesla’s Cybertruck is reportedly leading to issues with gaps in between the panels::The Cybertruck’s steel is made in “coils that resemble giant rolls of toilet paper,” WSJ reported.
The Cybertruck’s steel is made in “coils that resemble giant rolls of toilet paper,”
All steel is shipped from the steel mill in coils just like that.
Other manufacturers of all manner of stainless products seem to have figured out a solution to the problem.
Other manufacturers of all manner of stainless products seem to have figured out a solution to the problem.
Two design choices together probably make the problem multiplicatively worse:
- Flat panels are not anywhere as stiff as curved panels.
- Mechanical parameters of the stainless alloy they’re using (eg it might retain the coiled shape more than some other plain steel alloys).
I can’t get over the flatness… those panels surely rattle too? Or do they void-fill the doors and body with something?
Flat panels are not anywhere as stiff as curved panels
Same for windows. So much for “thermonuclear explosion-proof glass”, Elon.
Also, the shape has horrible aerodynamics. If it had a combustion engine, they couldn’t sell it in large parts of the world due to fuel efficiency.
Don’t older cars have mostly flat panels? So it should be possible, right?
How old?
Early 1900’s: Yes. Metal panels had the same problem, timber panels did not (their thickness stops them from flapping).
Late 1900’s: I don’t think anyone used flat? There were definitely designs intended to look flat (esp 80’s and early 90’s), but there were still subtle curves to those panels to bias them and stop them flapping, as far as I recall.
Happy to be proven wrong :)
but there were still subtle curves to those panels to bias them and stop them flapping
Okay, that explains it. Thanks!
Company doing stuff they have no expertise with. Neither have i, but i don’t promise silly products.
Seems like tesla has an answer too:
sell the poorly made trucks to rubes while you crank out more as cheaply as possible.
You mean the thing everyone said was going to happen actually happened. Lmao
LMAO X2
Not a Tesla fan but this article is garbage. Basically all sheet metal comes on coils “that resemble toilet paper” including the metal that other manufacturers use.
It definitely seems like an irrelevant point. All car sheet steel arrives in rolls.
I’d be more concerned about how it is formed into panels, how resistant it is to corrosion, what tolerances parts have, how easy is it to replace parts, whether there are visible production flaws due to it being naked steel, and if construction techniques or material thickness makes it more dangerous to occupants or pedestrians in collisions.
I certainly won’t be surprised if pictures start appearing in a year or two of cybertrucks that have been completely fucked by salt water corrosion, or heat warppage or other issues caused by their design.
I certainly won’t be surprised if pictures of that don’t start appearing in a year or two because the things still haven’t been delivered
(I know, I know, they’re supposed to be delivering the first ones in two days, but I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if that somehow falls through)
When they make plywood it comes wrapped up super tight in a tree
Has anyone complimented your genius today?
yeah. panel gaps aren’t a sheet metal issue, it’s been a Tesla issue since forever.
“Water? Like out the toilet?”
*terlet
The same thing you can make sangria in?
“It’s just chunks of fruit, I swear!”
Please only wash your Cyber Truck with Brawndo™
Yeah, but other manufacturers don’t try to origami sheet metal into a car.
That’s almost exactly what they do…
The missing point is it’s a property of stainless steel that it remembers being a coil and can unflatten itself weeks later if the manufacturer doesn’t know how to work around that.
I’ve worked with stainless steel (specifically 304, 430 and 401) for 15 years and the steel shouldn’t have a memory after being run through a de-coiling machine that is configured properly. Excessive heat in a focused area would definitely cause it to warp but this can usually be overcome by adding geometry to stiffen the parts. It seems like the team at Tesla is missing a step somewhere.
Well at least Elon can pretend that all the panels were within 10 microns of gap when they left the factory, and it totally warped 2 cm (20000 microns) on the way to the customers.
So wait. You’re telling me that materials can expand and contract due to many conditions such as shifts in temperature? Ya don’t say (that was directed at Elon, not you).
Sure, he could say that. It’s still his/Tesla’s fault. Shipping the product is part of the process, and they’d still be responsible for that (or should be at least. Who knows in this dystopia).
He’d probably just say that it arrived in perfect shape, the customer just fucked it up and are lying. Or something like that.
Seems like the answer here is “You’re an idiot if you buy Tesla products”.
Essy lesson to learn, imo.
Good old fashioned blame the customer. He’s so good at it his fanbois will do it for him.
Well, it wouldn’t be a Tesla if it didn’t.
10 micron!
I think we all just misheard him and he actually said it had macron precision, not micron
Oui oui!
What a surprise! The other well known stainless steel car, the Delorean DMC-12, is FAMOUS for being a huge pain in the ass to work on. Dents and dings are tremendous problems, and stainless steel is super heavy.
Not to mention all of the manual labour it took to make all the panels to fit properly. No 2 delorean were the same
Depending on the grade, the weight difference between stainless steel and carbon steel of the same thickness is not much of any at all.
Don’t most cars use aluminum as well as carbon steel in their frames, to save on weight?
I think the majority just use regular steel. Ford was a talking point when they started using aluminum for the F150 body panels. And then they started running into corrosion issues where the aluminum meets the steel fasteners and frame.
I doubt this has any stainless in the frame. Really it should be a comparison of stainless vs aluminum and plastic body panels
Tesla’s quality control just reflects Elons concern for all his biological children.
This isn’t even the first time this has happened to a Tesla, at this point this particular problem is just expected.
Every single thing you’ve ever had that had sheet metal in it came from “coils that resemble giant rolls of toilet paper”. But it’s the WSJ, I just assume the writer has never met anyone who works for a living.
4x8 sheets are pretty popular, too.
Watch what happens when people eventually discover what completely flat panels of sheet metal do in heavy wind.
There is literally a reason why no other auto manufacturer uses flat body panels on cars.
Just so I know, what does happen?
they get real flappy
And LOUD.
Metal does not like to compress at all. But when you make it really thin it will be floppy like a spring you might find in a pen or wind up toy. However you can make it stiff again by making it curved so the sheet has structure/mass going on all directions. Infact believe it or not cars during the 1960/70s had quite a bit of curves dispute being a brick. And that’s because they didn’t want the panels to dent easily. So when a car has flat faces like the Cyber truck. Those panels don’t even have subtle curves to give them structure and they are soo suspectable to dents that a simple brease does the job of denting them.
I assume the flat panels have an aerodynamic effect like the underbody of race cars. They ultimately create forces sucking the surface into a direction. And since on the sides it will be never stable it will flap around all the time. You can see that the most with the vertical fin stabilizer of Formula 1 cars. https://old.reddit.com/r/F1Technical/comments/nd2ayw/alpine_flexible_rearwing/
Here is a lot of wobbling and while the vertical changes are intended, the horizontal ones surely aren’t and they tried to make it as stiff as possible. Certainly nothing a production car would achieve.
Correct me if I am wrong, as I didn’t study this particular area.
I love how this is a joke that just went too far. Elon presented a stupid design, just for attention, as with everything he does. And now they are seriously taking about releasing the ugliest car since the Fiat Multipla.
Fiat Multipla
Damn that’s a goofy lookin car. Looks almost like the car that Homer Simpson designed.
I had to look it up. I was not expecting your joke to be literal. It does look like Homer’s car! Just without the second dome.
Should have just been left as a quirky concept car. Obviously divisive design but I think it looks best under specific lighting conditions.
Flat panels suck for resistance to bending, the compound curves and folds pressed into most car panels give them more rigidity
2 million idiots clambering over themselves to preorder this brainfart of a vehicle.
Yeah it looks like what a toddler would draw if you told them to draw a truck.
The regular Tesla cars have inconsistent panel gaps already, I feel this is a production issue, not a material issue.
Just leaving a “Aber die Spaltmaße” comment here.
