All language subtitles for Impossible Engineering s03e09 Inside the Tesla Factory.eng

The Tesla factory...

America's largest
industrial plant.

Behind me is one of the largest
hydraulic stamping presses

in north America.

It's actually
seven stories high.

For this
cutting-edge facility

to build electric cars...

Suddenly, science fiction
isn't tomorrow, it is today.

...engineers had
to look to the past...

This beautiful machine,
it's one of the world's

first electric cars.

Brilliant engineering.

...to make
the impossible possible.

... Captions by vitac...
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

since the industrial revolution,

factories have
often been portrayed

as dirty and dangerous places...

Churning out products at
the expense of the work force.

But one American factory
is challenging this view...

...the Tesla factory.

Located in Fremont, California,

this state-of-the-art automotive
manufacturing facility

is kick-starting
a new technological era.

And Tesla's Alexis Georgeson
has witnessed the birth

of this
giant industrial machine.

The processes
here, in this factory,

are designed to be
as efficient as possible.

It's a 5.3 million
square-foot facility.

This American car manufacturer

revolutionized the industry

with the world's first
electric sports car.

But producing hundreds
of thousands of electric cars

for mass consumption

required an even greater
scale of engineering.

That's one of the biggest
challenges ahead,

as our CEO Elon Musk has said,

is really building the machine
that makes the machine.

Starting production in 2012,

this machine is
the biggest factory

in the western hemisphere.

The 5.3 million
square-foot factory

employs 6,000 workers
and state-of-the-art robots

to transform raw materials
into high-tech vehicles

in just a few days.

Here, the staff and some of
the world's mightiest machines

come together to cast,
stamp, paint, and assemble

component parts into 2,000 cars
every week.

That's before they go
through the final lap

on the factory's
dedicated test track.

But making this many cars
in a factory this big

would have been impossible
without mass production.

We're rethinking the way

that the automotive industry

has approached production
in the past,

through first
principles of physics

and through vertical integration

and just really treating this

as an engineering problem,
first and foremost.

Once upon a time,

there was no such thing
as mass production.

Sword, please.

Everything was made by artisans.

Thanks, peasant.

Though charming and unique...

Tada!
hmm.

...the process
was inconsistent...

What a chopper.

Mine's a tiddler.

...expensive...

More.

More.

More!

...and slow.

With this approach,

making mass quantities
of products was impossible.

What's this?! Gah!

But a revolutionary change
was on the horizon.

Architect and historian
Benedetto Camerana

is in the iconic city
of Venice, Italy,

to reveal where
mass production got its start.

In the middle ages,
the Republic of Venice

was a political power

with a strong reputation
for war and conquest.

The strength
of the venetian empire

was based on naval muscle
and commercial trade.

Both needed ships
and lots of them.

Naval boat building
had been carried out

in different shipyards

sprawled throughout the city.

That could take weeks
to produce a single galley.

And that was not fast enough.

In the 12th century,

the Venetians developed
a game-changing solution.

And this is it...

the Venice arsenale.

Here, they completely
re-imagined the way

that ships were built.

For the first time in history,

each individual component
of a ship was mast produced...

Across a centralized row
of specialized workshops.

The ships were moved
around the dockyard

to different workshops.

Each focused on pre-fabricating

the different elements
of the ship.

Hulls were made
and launched as shells.

They were then towed
across the shipyard and equipped

with ready-made masts,
rudders, and anchors.

At the final workshop,

they were rigged and set up
with oars and armaments.

At its height, they could
assemble a galley per day here,

which is truly incredible.

At the arsenale,

venetian shipbuilders invented
the production line.

And bringing this production
line into the 20th century,

engineer Giacomo matte-Trucco

designed another
one-of-a-kind factory

in Turin, Italy,

for the car company fiat,
called the lingotto.

When it was completed in 1923,

this was the largest
car factory in the world...

five stories high.

For the first time,
all aspects of production

came together
in a single building.

Specialized workshops were

placed strategically
on each floor,

producing parts that would be
fitted to the vehicles

as they progressed through
the 1,600-foot-long factory.

Raw materials would
arrive by rail

to the ground floor
of the building.

Here, they would fashion
the car components.

On the second floor,

the engines and bodies
of the car were made.

One story up, gearboxes
and steering were added.

The fourth floor specialized

in brakes and upholstery.

And on the fifth floor,
finishing touches were made.

Finally, the completed cars
would emerge on the roof...

the most iconic feature
of the building.

All the cars coming
off the lingotto production line

came here, a purpose-built
rooftop test track.

For nearly 60 years,

this phenomenal test track
high above the Turin skyline

would have been witness

to the birth of hundreds

of thousands of cars.

For over 50 years,
the lingotto factory produced

countless vehicles until 1979.

But its tremendous legacy
lives on.

At the Tesla factory
in Fremont, California,

the principles
of mass production,

first applied
at the Venice arsenale

and further developed
at the lingotto,

are getting
a 21st-century makeover.

We move cars
from one end to another.

So much of the factory
is vertically integrated.

We're actually producing so many
components here, in house,

rather than shipping them
from other parts of the world

or other parts of the country.

While the production
line principles remain the same,

compared to factories
of the past,

the Tesla factory is
practically unrecognizable.

We wanted this,
first and foremost,

to be a beautiful
working environment

that really was a testament
to the quality of the products

that we were building here.

So we came in,
we repainted the entire space,

we put sunlights in the roof.

We wanted a lot of natural light

and a place
where workers could come

and be proud
of the craftsmanship

and the space where they were
creating these products.

But to create
a truly futuristic factory,

filled with cutting-edge robots,

the engineers had to draw

on the great innovations
of the past...

The robot is correcting itself
to achieve its objective.

...to deliver more
impossible engineering.

The Tesla factory.

As the largest industrial plant
in America,

this cutting-edge
electric car company

has one of the most advanced
production lines on the planet.

The 5. 3 million
square-foot factory

takes raw materials
in at one end,

and in as little as three days,

transforms them into cars.

6,000 workers interact

with the most futuristic
technologies

to produce a staggering
2,000 electric cars a week,

all of which go
through the final lap

on the dedicated test track.

But to produce vehicles on this
vast and ever-growing scale,

engineers had to design
with extreme economy.

How do we streamline this?

How do we ramp production?

How do we keep the costs down?

And how to do we make
this manufacturing process

as efficient as possible?

To be ultra efficient,
the engineers looked

to one of modern history's
great breakthroughs...

...robots.

Science communicator
Kate Mulcahy

is in southwest England

to find out how
a scientific investigation

into brain function

actually led
to a breakthrough in robotics.

Oh, lord, alive!

As I attempt to cross this beam,

signals are being sent
to my brain

through my eyes, my inner ears,

and my sensory systems.

This feedback helps me to
correct my weight distribution,

and, hopefully, I won't fall.

Each time Kate feels
herself losing her balance,

he senses warn her.

This sensation is something

that scientists call
negative feedback.

Yes!

For decades,
scientists tried to incorporate

this negative feedback
into robots

so that they could
direct themselves.

And in 1948,

American-born neuroscientist
William Grey Walter

had a breakthrough

and invented
a truly pioneering robot.

And here it is!

Each machine
contains two valves,

two relays, two motors,
and two sensors...

one for light,
and one for movement.

So, essentially,
it's a two-cell nervous system,

which, when you think about it,

compared to the billions
of nerve cells

that are in our brain,
isn't that many.

But it still did something
really amazing.

Grey Walter
called his device the tortoise.

The tortoise's sensors
are designed to sense the light

and move towards it.

So...

You can see it heading towards
the light bulb right now.

The tortoise uses
a photo-electric cell

to detect the light.

That's the sensor
you can see on top of it,

moving back and forth.

When it registers the light,
it stops the steering

and moves towards it.

Because there are
different light sources

in the room,

the tortoise regularly stops
to check its position

before adjusting its direction

to move closer
to the brightest light.

So, that's negative feedback.

Just like
when I was balancing on the beam

and adjusting myself,

the robot is correcting itself
to achieve its objective.

Now, if we put obstacles
in its way,

things get really interesting.

The shell of the robot
now acts as a bump sensor.

So it's making decisions
based on two sensors...

one is sensing the light,

and the other is detecting
the obstacles.

Though it may look simple,

this is actually
complex behavior.

The tortoise has
a different solution

ever time the experiment is run,

and each path it takes involves

a multitude of different

corrections and movements.

Every reaction they make

is a result of sensing
the environment around them.

Then, they react
and create a new path.

Amazing!

For the first time,
a machine could demonstrate

a complex
decision-making process,

and this discovery paved the way

for a revolution in robotics.

Autonomous machines have come to
replace humans in many realms,

from the domestic
to outer space.

And they've revolutionized
the industrial world.

But at
the Tesla factory in California,

engineers are integrating
robots and workers

to a much greater degree

than the factories
of the past...

Making it one of the most
automated facilities on earth.

Some robots here
even resemble Grey Walter's

breakthrough tortoises.

We've solved
a tough logistics problem

in the factory, too,
with the use of robots.

So our cars actually move
around several sections

of the process of production

on these little smart carts.

Their robots that actually

follow these magnetic strips
in the floor,

and they move
from one section to the next,

following these little strips.

Also using negative feedback,

these robotic vehicles
use sensors

to spot people
or objects in their way

and wait
until the path is clear.

Incredibly, they take
themselves out of rotation

when their batteries run low

and put themselves back
when fully recharged.

And this simple guidance system

allows their routes
to be adapted instantly.

But these carts
are relatively primitive

compared with most
of the factory's robots.

The robots behind me
are kuka robots.

They're actually trained
to do up to five tasks.

They rivet, they weld,
they glue, they move pieces

from one part
of the line to the other.

So they're incredibly
smart robots.

Hundreds of the kuka robots

perform amazingly complex
but repetitive tasks

with incredible precision...

And without ever getting bored.

But when it comes
to heavy lifting

and carrying 5,000-pound cars
dynamically,

engineers at the Tesla factory

had to develop even
more serious heavyweights...

So most
conventional robotic arms

that you'd find on the market

wouldn't be able to lift weights

nearly as close to this one.

...to make
the impossible possible.

The Tesla factory.

As the largest industrial plant
in the western hemisphere...

...this technologically-
advanced facility

uses cutting-edge robots
to help produce an astonishing

2,000 electric cars every week.

But for robots to actually lift
and rotate 5,000-pound cars,

engineers had to rely
on a breakthrough innovation.

This is one
seriously impressive robot.

This is the Fanuk M-2000ia/1200

multi-arm manipulator.

Now, this robot is so strong,

it's capable of doing
four times the work

of a conventional robot.

It's able to lift
a really impressive 1.2 tons,

and it's used
on the Tesla assembly line.

But its bigger brother,

which is also in use
on the Tesla assembly line,

can lift a huge 2.3 tons.

Now, that's really useful

if you want to move a car
in a single lift.

So most conventional
robotic arms

that you'd find on the market
wouldn't be able to lift weights

nearly as close to this one.

On top of that,
this robot is capable

of running 24 hours a day

and seven days a week.

Yes! it's working!

Traditional ways
of moving heavy weights,

such as lifts or hoists,

can only go up and down,
whereas this,

because of
its six different axes,

allow this robot to move
with unbelievable accuracy.

And it's exactly this
that Tesla uses

to save them
both time and money,

and to ensure that cars

can keep rolling off
their production line.

And all of that make this

a truly incredible feat
of robotic engineering.

12 of these
heavyweight robotic arms

use the six different axes

to provide both
flexibility and sheer power

to keep
the car production going.

Named after superheroes,
the likes of Wolverine

and ice man continually
lift up these heavy cars

without breaking a sweat.

Robots are incredibly valuable

in the automation
of this process

at helping us to ramp production

and to make this process
as seamless as possible.

But robots aren't
the only remarkable machines

required for
a 21st-century car factory.

To produce hundreds of thousands
of electric cars,

Tesla's engineers must
continually satisfy

a very modern challenge.

All of this is
an effort to indulge

as many electric vehicles
and get them on the road

as quick and seamless
as possible.

The Tesla factory
in Fremont, California,

is the largest industrial plant

in the western hemisphere.

This futuristic facility

produces over
2,000 electric cars

every week made of aluminum.

But to shape the vehicles
with this material,

engineers had to rely
on an inventive

manufacturing process
from the past...

the industrial press.

Today, bicycles are everywhere.

But when they first appeared,
they were strictly for the rich.

Historian Chris sweet
is on the trail

of the industrial innovation

that brought bicycles
to everyone.

Late-19th century bikes
were luxury items,

costing up to $100 each.

That was as much as an average
worker would make in six months.

But all that changed here,
in Chicago.

In the late 19th century,

entrepreneur Adolph Schoeninger

revolutionized
how bicycles were made.

Because early metal bicycles
were manufactured

using a cumbersome process,

Schoeninger hoped to improve
the building technique.

Traditional method
of making bicycle components

was known as drop forging.

It involved taking
a chunk of metal

and heating it
till it was malleable,

like this chunk of Clay,

and forging it into shape
by repeated pounding.

It was a long, labor-intensive,
and expensive process.

That is what Schoeninger
wanted to change.

And this is what he did.

He came up
with an industrial press

to shape cold steel.

Imagine this sandwich maker
is our press.

You put in a sheet
of cold steel...

Press it.

Out comes a three-dimensional
bicycle component

ready to be
assembled and painted.

By pressing bicycle components

with an industrial press
instead of forging them,

Schoeninger slashed
the prices of its bicycles,

finally making them affordable
to the general public.

Soon, Schoeninger's
western wheel works

was turning out
70,000 bikes a year,

with markets
as far away as Europe,

transforming Chicago

into the bike capital
of the world.

And his methods were picked up
and used by Henry Ford

and other pioneers
of the automotive industry.

The mass stamping of parts
revolutionized manufacturing

in America and around the world.

At the Tesla factory,
engineers have super-sized

Schoeninger's revolutionary
industrial press

to shape the cars.

This is one of the largest
hydraulic stamping presses

in north America.

It's actually
seven stories high.

We can only see four stories.

Three of them are
actually underground.

There are five main
sections of this press,

each one weighing up
to about a million pounds.

The giant stamping
press uses a variety of heads

to turn the flat sheets
of aluminum

into all kinds
of ultra-lightweight

car body parts.

And cold-forming the aluminum
helps preserve

the physical strength
of each component.

You need a machine that
can exert a ton of pressure

and force down on those panels
without a lot of heat.

That's what this hydraulic press
is capable of doing.

We take those sheets of aluminum
that you saw,

and they're actually stamped
between four to five times

as they move down here.

This powerful press
is capable of exerting

around 9,000 tons of pressure
per square inch,

the equivalent of having
3,000 cars

pressing down on your thumbnail.

The seven-story-tall
monster press

can create strong,
complex shapes quickly

and at a much lower cost
than other techniques

like hot forming or machining.

This is an incredibly
important machine to us

to help stamp
the individual parts

for model S and model X.

They're electric vehicles,

and they're already
very heavy cars

because battery packs
weight a lot.

So it was important that
the other parts of the vehicle

be as light-weight as possible
for efficiency.

The aluminum panels make
the range and the safety

very, very possible
in these cars.

But these fresh-pressed panels

must also be painted.

So how do you efficiently paint
2,000 cars a week

without waste?

This would have been impossible

without the innovation
of electrostatic painting.

To reveal the origins
of industrial painting,

physicist Suzie Sheehy

is visiting
an inner-city graffiti workshop

where the inefficient use
of paint is clear.

Spray painting
is a brilliant way

to cover a surface area

with an even coat of paint.

But as any graffiti artist
can tell you,

it's pretty messy and inexact.

As the paint particles
are released

from the pressurized canister,

they have a tendency
to go everywhere,

all over your hands
and the floor.

That's leads to a lot
of wasted and scattered paint,

which is both costly
and inefficient.

During the depression
of the 1930s,

Harold Ransburg was working at
his father's house ware factory

when he saw how
much industrial paint

was simply getting wasted.

This salt shaker
is exactly the kind of article

that Ransburg
was trying to paint.

So if I try and paint it...

...you can see
there's a lot of mess

and a lot of wastage,

and I haven't even really
achieved a very good finish.

And you can imagine
on an industrial scale

how expensive that would be.

So with lab assistant
Harry green,

Ransburg experimented
with electrical currents.

Because negative and positive
charges attract each other,

Ransburg and green introduced

an electrical charge to
the painting line

in order to attract
all the paint to the product

without waste.

And in 1938,

Ransburg spent
all the money he had, $35,

to buy
a high-voltage transformer

typically used
in hospital X-ray machines.

I'm gonna use a
Van Der Graaf generator instead,

but the principle
is more or less the same.

This generator uses
a moving belt

to build up an electrical charge
in a hollow metal globe.

To if I connect this up,
that will give a positive charge

to the shaker

and then the paint,
which is still neutral,

is gonna become attracted
to it...

at least, that's the theory.

All right. So, if I just
ground the paint tin.

Switch it on.

Let's see.

Oh, that's great.

So it's actually coating
all around the sides.

It's actually
pulling the paint all around,

onto the back.

It's got a really good coverage,

and, actually, there's a lot
less paint wasted, as well.

Called electrostatic painting,

Ransburg's pioneering technique

transformed industrial painting
across the world.

You might not realize it,

but electrostatic painting

is used to decorate all kinds
of everyday objects...

from shop fronts to railings,

lamp posts to bicycles.

We are surrounded by the fruits

of Harold Ransburg's
innovative approach to painting.

80 years on,

the Tesla factory has taken
electrostatic painting

to a level that Harold Ransburg

could only have dreamed of.

In a state-of-the-art
paint shop,

each car is attached
to an electricity source

and grounded.

Robots spray
positively-charge paint

that is electrostatically
attracted to the car.

Primer, color,
and, finally, a clear coat

are efficiently applied
with very little waste

to create a completely
flawless finish.

But mass producing electric cars
effectively and efficiently

isn't the only challenge
the factory faces.

To surpass the high expectations
of the car-driving public,

Tesla's engineers had
to overcome

the historic problems
of the electric car...

20 miles an hour.

I'd say that's about as fast
as I'd like to go.

...to create even more
impossible engineering.

In California,
Tesla's engineering innovators

are in the process of creating
the factory of the future,

attempting to turn
the more-than-century-old

automobile industry on its head.

They're using advanced
robotics and technology

to bring back the electric car

and transform it
from a niche item

to an everyday
mass-produced product.

Everything about the 5.3
million-square-foot facility

is designed for speed,
accuracy, and efficiency.

But technical advances
aren't the only challenges

the factory faces.

It must also turn out a vehicle
that the public,

who are used to the speeds
and distances

that internal-combustion
engines provide,

will actually want.

Hmm.

In 1908,
Henry Ford had a bright idea...

Aha!

...to bring
the internal-combustion engine

to the people.

The revolutionary technology
changed the world...

Demand for gasoline went
through the roof.

I'm rich!

Cities swelled as new suburbs

within reach
of the workplace grew.

Hi, honey!
I'm home!

Modern life
quickly centered around

the internal-combustion engine.

And people could go faster...

And further than ever before.

But once upon a time,

the combustion engine
had a surprising rival...

the electric car.

This is a pope-waverley.

Built in 1901,

it's one of the world's
first electric cars.

And this particular one was used
by Harrods for deliveries.

Physicist Suzie Sheehy
is taking a ride

on this classic piece
of American engineering.

It's a little-known fact
that at the turn of the century,

about a third of all cars
were electric powered.

When the automobile
was first invented,

there were three main forms
of propulsion...

internal combustion,
steam-driven,

and the popular
battery-powered engines.

Now, this beautiful machine,
in its day,

would have had a range
of about 20 miles

and a top speed of
a whopping 20 miles an hour.

But having driven in it
for a while,

I'd say that's about as fast
as I'd like to go.

But electric cars
were soon eclipsed

because automobiles
running on gasoline

developed a longer range,
became more reliable,

and got much faster,

leaving the electric car
in the dust.

But Tesla's designers
and engineers believe

they've overcome the problems
that held the electric car back.

To see how,
rally race driver Alex Roy is

taking the model S out
for a test drive.

Earlier generations
of electric vehicles

didn't have the benefit

of batteries
with decent power density.

It is the first time that
you have an electric vehicle

that's a genuine sports car.

With the model S...

You can do this.

And that is
Ferrari-level acceleration.

It's...

It's impressive.

The beating heart of the design

is the powerful electric motor.

And it couldn't be
more different

from a traditional
internal-combustion engine.

The standard gasoline engine has
hundreds of moving parts.

But the motor
on the model S and model X

only has one moving piece...
the rotor.

Powering it are nearly 7,000
small lithium-ion batteries

packed into a tray that fits
in the floor of the vehicle.

And to produce these batteries,

Tesla is doing
something extraordinary...

...creating an even
bigger factory,

the size of which
has never been seen before

on planet earth.

It's still under construction.

We're building it in phases
so that we can actually start

production of battery cells
and packs inside

while we continue
construction outside.

That factory will,
once complete,

be the largest building
in the world by footprint.

Called the Giga-factory,

this enormous solar-powered
facility in Nevada

will take the mass production
of batteries for electric cars

to an unprecedented scale.

Within a couple of years,

we'll be putting hundreds of
thousands of battery packs out

every year.

These powerful batteries,

combined with radical
automotive design,

allow the electric car
to drive much further distances.

But to compete
with the hundreds of miles

that gasoline-powered vehicles
can go on a single tank of gas,

Tesla's engineers had to give
the electric car

yet another source of power.

It's an absolutely
brilliant piece of engineering.

And, suddenly...
Science fiction isn't tomorrow,

it is today.

...to make
the impossible electric car...

Possible.

The Tesla factory...

as the largest
industrial plant in America,

this facility
has produced and sold

over 200,000
electric cars worldwide.

But making
a battery-powered vehicle

that can drive
as far and as fast

as gas-powered cars

would have been impossible

without giving it more power.

Anyone who's ever
ridden a bicycle...

Whoo-hoo!

...knows
how much power is wasted

when you brake.

The kinetic energy
from the bike's forward motion

is thrown away

as the brake pads rub
against the tires,

converting that energy to heat.

Just how much energy is lost
becomes painfully obvious

when you start pedaling again.

Determined to use the energy
normally lost in braking,

Tesla's engineers
have coordinated the motor

to work with the brakes.

When the brakes
slow the vehicle,

the motor also acts
as a generator

and converts the otherwise
wasted energy into electricity,

returning it to the batteries.

This energy recycling process
is called regenerative braking.

Regenerative braking
is a technology

that grew out of racing.

And in formula 1,
regenerative braking was

developed
to make cars go faster.

In a Tesla,
that extends the car's range,

and it's one of the reasons

the Tesla has a range
of 300 miles

as opposed to earlier
generations of electric cars,

which were restricted
to 250, 200, even 150.

All this means electric cars

can now match the distances
of gasoline-powered vehicles.

If you didn't have
a regenerative braking system

dumping power
back into the battery,

I would imagine you'd have
somewhere between a, you know,

10% and 30% drop in range.

It's an absolutely
brilliant piece of engineering.

And, suddenly...
Science fiction isn't tomorrow,

it is today.

These trailblazing
engineering innovations

would not be possible

without the giant
cutting-edge factory

that builds them.

This extraordinary
engineering process begins

with humble coils
of aluminum sheets...

And ends just a few days later
on the test track.

That can-do,
think-outside-the-box

is really something
that informs both the vehicle

and the factory side
of the equation here at Tesla.

You'll see that both in
the engineering of our products,

as well as the engineering
and in our approach

to manufacturing and production
within this facility.

By drawing from the
great innovators of the past...

This was the largest
car factory in the world.

Oh, that's great!

Amazing!

...adapting their ideas,

and making trailblazing
discoveries of their own...

Every single manufacturer
will be making a car

just like this
with their own brand on it

within five years.

Things can be done better.

You don't have to be trapped
in the past.

...the planners,
designers, and engineers

behind this futuristic factory

are succeeding in making
the impossible possible.

Being in this
factory, certainly,

is something that, I think,
every employee can agree

is something
they're incredibly proud of.

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