COLLISION REPAIR TOOLS & EQUIPMENT What’s new in heavy duty collision repair? By Lee Daugherty, Heavy Duty Sales Manager, Chief Automotive T HE HEAVY DUTY COLLISION REpair industry is going through several evolutionary changes that are being driven by four key factors: • Technological advances in heavy duty vehicle design and manufacturing. • Increasing demand for accurate measurement and documentation of vehicle damage. • Th e desire to improve shop productivity, increase cycle times and minimize vehicle downtime. • Eff orts to increase technician safety. TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES Heavy duty truck manufacturers have introduced a wide range of new technologies in recent years, with many more under development. Federal greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and fuel effi ciency standards for medium and heavy duty vehicles have led OEMs to develop new pollution control equipment and to incorporate increasing amounts of newer materials like aluminum and high-strength steel into their vehicle designs. As a result, the heavy duty collision repair industry needs to invest in new repair methods, training and equipment in order to make proper collision repairs. Looking ahead, another technology challenge for the industry will be dealing with the broad spectrum of new sensors under development to provide driver assistance and increase vehicle safety. Advanced control systems that rely on sensors to detect surroundings are already being implemented in passenger 16 | Collision Repair | AUGUST 2016 New technology that uses 3-D stereo photogrammetry (the science of making measurements from photographs) enables more accurate measuring and documenting of collision damage. Chief Automotive’s Cam Scan HD measuring system, for example, lets technicians measure and compare two points anywhere on a vehicle. Photo courtesy of Chief Automotive vehicles and commercial trucks for adaptive driving, emergency-braking control and lane-changing/blind-spot notifi cation. Repairing a vehicle’s structure and properly locating these sensor systems will require the use of a measuring system that delivers millimeter precision. ACCURATE MEASUREMENT AND DOCUMENTATION In most heavy duty shops, vehicle measuring is still conducted with centerline gauges and string, a method that, while accurate when performed correctly, is limited in scope and is time consuming. Plus, “documentation” consists of whatever the technician writes down. While light duty shops began transitioning to the accuracy of computerized measuring system decades ago, the move on the heavy duty side has been hampered by the specialized nature of Class 8 trucks. It’s nearly impossible to have spec data for every single truck on the road. But new technology lets shops more accurately measure and document collision damage on trucks and trailers using 3-D stereo photogrammetry (the Four key factors driving collision repair evolution
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