Toyota has reportedly demonstrated a prototype production line for a cast car chassis, made by a process sometimes referred to as "gigacasting." The new manufacturing technique may offer significant production advantages, but could hand consumers the short end of the stick when it comes to the castings' repairability.
The casting process was demonstrated at Toyota's Myochi plant in Japan, where it fabricated the rear third of a unibody at an event attended by Nikkei Asia. Cast unibodies are proposed as a potential replacement for conventionally assembled unibodies, which combine shaped metal pieces via welding, industrial adhesives, and more to form a car's frame. In an example given by Toyota, a unibody built with traditional methods required 86 parts, 33 steps, and hours on an assembly line. But in its demo, the company reportedly produced a cast equivalent in a mere three minutes.
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