only found one short read; Fire Breaks Out At Tesla Fremont Factory Involving Giga Press Machine they threw sand on it to put it out .
Naysayers are quiet? Maybe because nothing new has happened. Those shorting TSLA in February are very rich. Those buying in Jan and Feb are very sad. I have to wonder about the idea of buying TSLA for the long term, 5 to 7 year growth. There's nothing quite like buying a company that is most famous for saturating a niche market like California (with government help) just about the time that their competitors are getting up to speed. I had the same feeling as @hill when I saw they extinguished the fire with sand. It does not seem like a precision injection molding press would like that. I'd hate to have to do the cleanup. Nah. Not really anything worth saying. Dan
and they build more than cars, just at a time when a new administration will be promoting most everything they do
What should they used to put the fire out? Water would just move the burning hydraulic fluid around, and maybe splatter the metal. The powder extinguishers would still need clean up, and could wreck any electronic equipment nearby. Smothering with fire blankets might be an option, if you can get the blankets over the fire. Of course they need to stand up to molten aluminum. The fires in the paint shop didn't lead to an affect on the stock price.
I am not sure what the fire has to do with anything. Industrial accidents happen all the time at all kinds of manufacturers. Tesla is not exactly cash strapped to be hurt by this unfortunate incident. They will probably learn and go on with life.
Again, to dear naysayers. If you buy TSLA with three week horizon, then you are gambling. If you are buying it with a 5-7 year horizon, you are investing and the investment has a very excellent chance of paying off handsomely. I do not care what the difference between January prices and now are. I really don't. And if you do, then you should be on a gambling forum somewhere. Big Oil has had government help for almost a century now. Not sure what the implication is. I think it was a very wise investment in its time. Competition, according to every expert that has an idea about technology involved and not a TV talking head (like Sandy Munroe, for example), is 5-10 years behind on just about everything in the cars Tesla produces. That matches the 5-7 year horizon I am talking about. Also, Tesla is about to disrupt ride hailing industry with robo-taxi. Also, Tesla makes and sells solar production and storage equipment. Also, Tesla is cornering the market on battery ingredients. Also, Tesla has its own charging network. Also, Tesla has a chunk of Chinese market (the largest in the world) already. Competition just does not worry me yet, though I am sure it will become an issue at some point.
No one said that sand was wrong. It's just that those of us that build or use precision equipment are aware of the need to keep grit away from polished sliding surfaces. The cleanup will be an effort, but quite doable.
I've said it before, that NASA and Tesla have already done a great job with pushing the CAR industry to at least start getting up to speed. Sure there are problems, espeically OIL. opps am I being politically incorrect? I think so, but I've always been that way if I think something sounds nuts. Money talks, and the good ole boys are pretty good at keeping their plans under wraps, it always been that way and probably always will. At least in this world we all live in. As resources get slimmer and compeition for them gets more intense, ya know? I also looked at the chinese imports from a company in BC. Canada coming to market soon posted in another thread here at PC a month or two ago. They were real inexpensive, the specs were really small and most have 3 wheels. Nothing against a CamAm style vehicle, cept if someone wants a trike for effiecency purposes or to save the planet, it's an interesting idea. Will it seduce North American society. probably not. Maybe Tesla can succeed at that. We shall all see in the near future, as nobody really knows what is waiting in the wings - so to speak.
And the powders from most ABC extinguishers will need to be cleaned up, or risk it getting where it can cause harm. Like most companies, Tesla likely did a hazard analysis, and came up with sand as the best solution in the event of a fire. It is an environment with molten metals. What works in a kitchen isn't going to work there. The report said sand, but there are sand alternatives that are used the same way. Flamezorb Spill Absorbent | Seton
You don't have to tell me about ABC charges. We had to clean up a telephone switching complex when the fire department emptied the dry powder from TWO large trucks in an attempt to quench an electrical fire. We were told it was 1500 pounds of powder. We were vacuuming and dusting equipment for months. Abrasive + Corrosive is a bad mix for a building full of relays and electronics. As for the hazard analysis, it's unlikely. The press was purchased from a company in Italy, not home built. Most major equipment manufacturers specify things like lubricants, power requirements and special fire suppression issues. You don't need to analyze much. Dan
A job hazard analysis is done for a task or operation. In this case, operating the casting machine. The fact that they had sand available for a fire, instead of a generic extinguisher, shows some foresight was given.
... and it doesn't hurt Tesla that (even regular) gas prices here in Cali (largest US driving market) are into the $4/gallon range in many places. .
Proxy war in Middle East? They send drones to bomb Saudi oil, we/Saudis bomb them. Escalation followed by oil price hikes. North of $65/barrel we start up fracking again and they will be forced to increase production. By the end of this decade, I reckon none of this will matter as we'll be mostly driving on electrons, not oil. Big oil is going to get a bit less big and soon.
OPEC plus also managed to drive down the glut of excess supply. Then maybe the unsustainability of fracking became to big to ignore.
We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that stopping the fire's spread takes precedence over saving the source item of the fire. Failing that, there won't be a facility to clean up -- and in some places, the people in the facility -- let alone the source item.
Also, I believe there may have been an agreement between Saudi/OPEC and Russia to cut production. Russia does not do well with low oil prices, economically speaking.
I think OPEC plus means with Russia. They've been trying to reduce the surplus by cutting production for awhile, but it started working before the pandemic.
