Translated from French by Marc-Alain Nantel
13 May 2009
For safe collision repairs
Upper Body Measuring System
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You need only talk to Marc Robert for a few minutes to appreciate his knowledge of upper body measuring systems.
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These days, owning a measuring system to validate the accuracy of pulls carried out using a bench rack, or any other critical repairs for that matter, has become a necessity. The times when checking reference points using a unidimensional ruler or a simple measuring tape are long gone and highly questionable because of tighter manufacturing tolerances.
Marc Robert is a sales representative for Car-O-Liner products and has been a team member of the AUTOtraction company for the last 8 years. « To perform a quality repair and thus ensure passenger safety, it’s essential that you use a measuring apparatus to validate vehicle frame measurement points, ensuring they’re within manufacturer’s allowed tolerances. I’m convinced that some loss of control of vehicles that sustained previous damages may have been caused by dubious repairs which were not in accordance with the collision repair rule book. »
Only benefits
Using an upper body measuring system brings numerous benefits. It allows to better assess – more quickly – the severity and extent of damages that followed impact. « It’s common that damages may be invisible to the naked eye. This equipment helps to check if certain relevant points of reference have moved and takes them into account when preparing the repair cost estimate. Using computerized systems, you may also send a report to the insurer to suppport said repair cost estimate. »
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The mechanical measuring system includes numerous accessories allowing to reach the most difficult mesuring points.
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Types of systems
Marc identifies the features of systems available on the market: « There are basically two types of 3-D measuring systems; either mechanical or computerized. Both will do the job, but when you consider installation, actual measurement and writing reports, then the computerized system will save you a great deal of time. Choice of models is determined by the needs and targeted production rate of each colllision repair facility. »
Mechanical measuring system
Very affordable and user-friendly. Components include a measuring bridge, measuring slides, adapters and a tool wagon. Measurement is taken in three axes (front/back, left/right, top/bottom) and the collision repairer needs only to compare actual measurement to measuring data provided by vehicle manufacturers worldwide.
Computerized measuring system
If yours is a high-volume collision repair shop, it’s the ideal system. Although more expensive than the previous, this system features ease of installation (under 5 minutes) and the measures recorded by the mobile measuring unit are instantly compared to a virtual model already memorized in the computer’s data base. We can perform the pull while keeping an eye on the targeted tolerances on the PC monitor. For more information, visit www.autotraction.net or call your representative.
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The computerized measuring system uses a database generating virtual diagrams to be compared with actual points of reference.
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