Wheel Alignment
Pro-Align’s Quick Tread Edge has joined the Quick Check Drive in offering garages the opportunity to identify servicing opportunities with great speed and efficiency, while also offering a customer-friendly interface designed to support businesses’ relationship with their customers. The exclusive distributor of Hunter garage equipment also explains how electric vehicles are increasing the need for accurate and efficient wheel balancers.
Absolute Alignment has launched a new version of its popular Bluetooth Lite wheel aligner. The wheel alignment equipment specialist has developed the new model on the existing ‘Lite’ product. The new Bluetooth Lite has an extremely small footprint and is quick to put to work anywhere in the workshop. It can be used over a pit or on a variety of lifts, including two and four-post ramps and a scissor lift. The measuring heads have the power capabilities for a full day of use and the attached fixing clamps fit a range of vehicles, to meet most workshop demands.
As transport industries strive to balance commercial considerations with safety, compliance and the general ‘green’ issues of the day, digital analysis and sustainable technology developer, RL Automotive, has introduced a unique tyre management platform with a range of monitoring systems which enables fleet managers across all commercial sectors to reduce running costs, increase safety and limit the environmental impact of their operation.
Recognising the proliferation of ADAS within the car parc and the servicing demand it brings, Corghi has expanded its product range, with the release of the Proadas. The new product enables the calibration of safety-critical front sensors such as camera, radar and lidar, and targets businesses ready to enter ADAS servicing with an “easy to use” solution. The Corghi Proadas is available in the UK via distributor Rema Tip Top and is compatible with most equipment produced by the brand’s parent company, the Nexion group.
Wheel alignment checks offer garages the opportunity to demonstrate professional customer service while boosting profitability considerably, with a sizable proportion of the car parc suffering from misalignment, according to a leading garage equipment company. Pro-Align, the distributor of Hunter garage equipment products, says that 70 per cent of cars on the road today are misaligned. This, it continues, means there is a prime opportunity for workshops to help identify these issues through free alignment checks for every customer, regardless of what they had originally booked in for. After returning the initial outlay on machinery, Pro-Align says realignment jobs can then typically return profit margins of 88 per cent.
Absolute Alignment has officially opened its new head office located in Aldershot, Hampshire. The bespoke headquarters features a training area including a two-post lift, a dedicated build area – to calibrate and test equipment before dispatch and delivery, a main office area and a storage area.
TyreWatch has recently expanded its tyre management platform with AutoAlign, continuously monitoring for wheel misalignment, an issue it estimates affects a third of UK commercial vehicles, and VanSmart, a specific system for light commercial vehicles. With the new systems, TyreWatch has expanded its service offering further around the transport industry as it strives to balance commercial considerations with safety, compliance and ecological green initiatives. It says they enable fleet managers across all commercial sectors to reduce running costs and increase safety while limiting the environmental impact of their operation.
One of the UK’s leading independent vehicle repair groups, Motofix has extended its four-wheel alignment capabilities with a new Hunter wheel aligner, supplied and installed by UK distributor Pro-Align. The Towcester firm recently completed the latest installation at one of Motofix’s repair facilities in Northampton, allowing customers to access premium four-wheel alignment.
SharkEye introduced three new wheel aligners in June – the BigEye, the Husky and the Ibex.
Pitched as “the ultimate in car and LCV laser wheel alignment”, the BigEye takes its cue from the company’s Zubra Truck multi-axle aligner, which is designed to enable precise interaxle alignment. According to SharkEye representatives, the BigEye is the only laser aligner on the global market that offers its “unique and simple way of completely aligning a vehicle’s axles”. The machine can also be used as a standard four-wheel laser aligner and, just like all SharkEye products, is handmade in Sheffield, England.
Vehicle technicians studying at Stratford-upon-Avon College can now learn wheel alignment analysis and adjustments on all types of cars and vans using Hunter wheel alignment equipment. The opportunity follows the recent addition of wheel-balancing and wheel-alignment equipment from supplier Pro-Align.
Commercial vehicle tyre management system supplier TyreWatch will unveil two new products at this year’s ITTHub transport show. The company says the new additions will cut costs, improve safety and lower carbon emissions for operators across all commercial vehicle sectors. AutoAlign is a dynamic vehicle monitoring system designed to combat the widespread problem of wheel misalignment. TyreWatch says around a third of fleets suffer from misalignment unknowingly. The system will be rolled out in the UK in September 2021. Also due to be launched at the ITTHub show is a new version of the widely used TyreWatch VanSmart tyre monitoring system which, says the company, will improve safety and reduce running costs for light commercial vehicle operators.
Using the market proven TyreWatch ‘connected technology’ platform, AutoAlign continuously monitors each vehicle and detects any wheel alignment issue as soon as it occurs and automatically notifies the operator so that immediate corrective action can be taken.
Cris Services Group, the Purfleet-based concrete haulier and commercial repairs specialist, has reduced workshop costs, extended tyre life and cut vehicle downtime since acquiring a Josam wheel alignment system and portable heat inductor from AES UK. With 40 vehicles carrying wet cement for Hanson UK and a mixed fleet of concrete mixer trucks for hire, Cris Services were keen to improve workshop efficiency and to drive down operation costs such as tyre replacement and fuel.
Autodata has launched a version of its e-commerce website in the Romanian language. Autodata is an e-commerce technical solution for body shops around the world. In addition to the platform, it is also available as an API, and provides comprehensive Original Equipment (OE) sourced technical information for the service, maintenance, diagnostics, and repair of 90 per cent of vehicles on the road in Romania.
TyreWatch, the tyre monitoring technology company, is using the latest JOSAM Cam-aligner wheel alignment system to diagnose and correct mis-aligned vehicles which the company says, represent 33 per cent of the UK logistics industry.
Supplied by JOSAM’s UK distributor Automotive Equipment Solutions UK (AES UK) the JOSAM Cam-aligner is a compact, mobile system which uses patented camera technology together with the ‘centreline principle’ to determine the position of axles and individual wheels in relation to the square of the vehicle.
Absolute Alignment is preparing for the continued impacts of the pandemic and Brexit by increasing stock in order to ensure customers have an uninterrupted service despite the uncertainties ahead.
The Farnborough-based outfit has doubled again its amount of storage space for stock, employed further members of staff, and is preparing for Brexit by increasing the number of wheel aligners that will be readily available to customers in early 2021. Despite the pandemic, the demand for its wheel alignment equipment is higher than ever, making 2020 a record year for the company.
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Absolute Alignment
Corghi
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SharkEye
Pro-Align
Autodata
AES
Absolute Alignment