Congratulations on winning the European Inventor Award, Mr Oberle. How does it feel for you?
Richard Oberle: It feels like winning the lottery, but you can't get that much joy even with a million. So it's pure joy, not just for me personally, but for the company and my colleagues. It's incredible how many people are taking part, even in my old home near Aschaffenburg. Many have written and expressed their joy, and of course the same is happening in Italy at Idra. That's great!
Did Elon Musk also congratulate you as head of Tesla?
Oberle: He wasn't there yet, but he may be travelling on some kind of star right now. Someone said that if he were Elon Musk, he would put an electric car on my doorstep. I said we'd rather not do that.
Have you ever met Mr Musk in person?
Oberle: No, my colleague Fiorenzo Dioni deals with America, while I mainly work in Europe. The contacts between Idra and Tesla run through Mr Dioni and our boss John Stokes.
Tesla has a lot to thank Idra for. Do you know how many Idra machines are currently running in the Tesla factories?
Oberle: Even before the Giga Press, there were somewhat smaller machines that are still in use. I can only estimate, but I would say there are currently around 20 medium and large machines running at Tesla worldwide.
Other car manufacturers are also in the process of bringing Giga Press machines into production. Are you following this development?
Oberle: I am following them with great interest. I also have the opportunity to talk to German car manufacturers time and again. The reactions vary, from enthusiasm on the one hand to a wait-and-see attitude on the other. We are talking about huge investments. And at a time when everything is in a bit of a downturn, people are very cautious. Our German car manufacturers have to work on the basis of what they have amortised in their workshops today. Pushing all that away is not an easy decision. If gigacasting is the right path, and I believe it is, it will be taken. But it will take time.
Before you moved to Idra, you worked for Reis. When and how did you move from the tranquil Lower Main region across the Alps to Italy?
Oberle: I had already been with Reis for ten years and felt very comfortable. But I said to myself: Is that it, will you be with this company for the next 30 years? I was simply curious about other things. At the end of 1973, I received this offer from Italy and, together with my wife at the time, we decided to move to Italy.
You were with Idra until 1979, then you worked for Parker Hannifin for a long time and returned to Idra as a consultant in 2016 at the age of 76. Most people are already retired by then.
Oberle: There was still something that needed to be solved: When I started at Idra in 1974, I was given the task of dealing with a problem on the press-fit side of our machines. There were pressure surges that were destroying our valves, causing machine downtimes and they didn't understand where it was coming from. I looked into it at the time, but couldn't solve the problem. Even when I was at Parker, I encountered the problem again and again. I then applied for a patent there that solved this problem and I also put it into practice, for example at VW in Kassel. A whole series of machines were converted and still work very well today. In 2016, I came back to Idra with the task of developing something comparable that would not interfere with this patent issue. And I succeeded in creating a new patent with a completely different approach.
