Drivetrain Install Photos

[tomsax]

Bill Arnett had the opportunity to photograph the drivetrain installation on his Roadster and posted his photos for all to enjoy.

Tesla Roadster #55 Drivetrain Installation

He wanted to post them, but the new user registration form seems to be broken, and was also broken last week. Does anyone know what's up with that?

Anyway, he asked me to post the link on his behalf.

My thanks to Bill for sharing his awesome photos, and to Tesla for letting him document the process.

 

[graham]

These photos give great insight as to the drive train install procedure. It looks very labor intensive!

Thank you both Tom and Bill!

 

[doug]

Awesome! These are the kind of pics I was waiting for! Thanks, Tom and Bill.
(Btw, I'll send a message to dsacks6, this sites administrator, about the registration issue.)

 

[doug]

 

[TEG]

Yeah - those are great pix - thanks guys.

 

[Young]

Coolant Tubes?

Are the black tubes under ESS coolant tubes?

Young

 

[graham]

Are the black tubes under ESS coolant tubes?

Yes, the original picture actually captions them as such:

Tesla Roadster #55

Nearly in. Those tubes at the bottom of the ESS are for the cooling fluid.

Moderator's Note: Some more info on the tubes here: Patents

 

[doug]

So hopefully Bill is able to register now. I'm curious how long that install took. The pictures looks like they might have started mid afternoon or earlier and didn't finish till after dark. I'm also curious what delivery time Tesla gave him now that the drivetrain install is complete.

Must have been really exciting seeing everything come together like that. I'd want to be able to do vehicle verification myself. :biggrin:

 

[graham]

Yes... I am curious too in how long an installation ties up a bay and how many bays they have to do installs.

This is all rooted in production rate questions I have: What is the limiting factor with installing drive trains in all the gliders sitting around. Skilled people? Bays? Components? If they had the all the drive trains and gliders they need, how many drive train installs can they handle per week in Menlo Park given their current number of lifts and equipment?

 

[graham]

Bill Arnett's pictures have been picked up by AutoBlog Green (with credit to this site and doug as well):
Picture perfect install of a Tesla Roadster drivetrain - AutoblogGreen

One of the good things of having the Tesla Roadster assembled close to at lesat some of its customers is that they can actually go to the factory and see how their car is being made. This is what Bill Arnett did, and he not only had the chance to see his Roadster's drivetrain installed, but also got permission from Tesla to take pictures of the whole process; watch along here. The rest of the car was assembled in the UK and shipped (by air). The photos were taken on Nov. 12th, and we can see how the ESS (battery), the motor and the PEM (Power Electronics Module) are all packaged into the Roadster's sleek package.

 

[doug]

I saw this picture in the SF Chronicle yesterday...




and then thought about this:

 

[doug]

More pics of Bill's Sig#55 posted here: http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/tesla-roadster/1950-more-roadster-photos.html

 

[doug]

At the 100th Roadster event today, Rachael Konrad took some journalists and me to go see the shop where the technicians do the drivetrain installations. Since it's related, I thought I'd post some of the pics I took in this thread. Sadly, I was using a snap camera with nowhere near the image quality of Bill's.


L-R: A Tesla technician named Andre, Rachael Konrad, and
a Korean journalist.

Andre (whom you may recognize him from Bill's photos) was nice enough to explain the installation process to me and answer my questions.


Motors:

 

[doug]

Ducting that goes around the motor for forced air cooling:

Under the car. The motor cooling fan is the black cylinder right of center.



BorgWarner transaxle in a box.


Jig for mounting the motor to the transaxle.

 

[doug]

Battery pack crates with freshness dating:

 

[vfx]

Wonder what they do with 100 big wooden crates?

 

[doug]

Wonder what they do with 100 big wooden crates?

The battery packs are assembled right down the street in San Carlos, so assume they just reuse them.

 

[vfx]

The battery packs are assembled right down the street in San Carlos, so assume they just reuse them.

I thought the battery packs were assembled in Taiwan. Remember the whole drop-a-battery-pack-to-pass-international-standards-testing-thing?

I guess they dropped that (pun) for just shipping the cells...

 

[graham]

Bill Arnett and his install pictures have been posted to the teslamotors site:
From Glider to Roadster: Watching My Car Get Built

 

[TEG]

Hmm, I wonder where the idea to put an 18650 next to those other cells came from? :wink:

http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/battery-discussion/1156-its-batteries-stupid.html#post14322