SPECIALISED COLLISION REPAIR EQUIPMENT

SPECIALISED COLLISION REPAIR EQUIPMENT –
An absolute MUST.

………”The reason why the smash repair industry cannot consistently produce safe crashworthy collision repairs is mainly attributable to not having the correct specialist repair equipment or methods”………

To reinstate structural integrity, collision damaged vehicles should always be repaired using manufacturer approved smash repair equipment however only few smash repair shops can afford to purchase or know how to use this equipment.

IVIC recommends that heavy damage or structurally damaged vehicles should only be repaired on ‘Jigging’ equipment. All motor vehicles are built on ‘Jigs’ in the factory and subsequently should be collision repaired on ‘Jigging’ equipment. This is the only way to reinstate structural integrity and return manufacturer recommended tolerance integrity to collision damaged vehicles.

There are a number of ‘Jigs’ on the market which are used by smash repairers. This makes it very confusing when choosing a repairer who can effect proper crashworthy repairs to your collision damaged vehicle. The Italian Carbench branded Jig is the only smash repair equipment having all commercial manufacturer approvals to repair all makes and models. See endorsements list on side of this page.

Suppliers of other branded ‘Jigging’ and collision repair equipment claim to have secured motor vehicle manufacturer approvals for their products however IVIC have undertaken exhaustive investigations and have made continued requests to these manufacturers over the past year to provide copies of their approvals. For some unexplained reason no motor vehicle manufacturer endorsement documentation has ever been forthcoming and it appears these other smash repair equipment manufacturers do not have the endorsements they claim to have to support their claims.

The Carbench jigging equipment is unique in that it is a repair tool and can also be used as measuring tool. However and unlike Carbench equipment, all other jigging and smash repair equipment requires regular calibration particularly when repairers measure their work in progress on this equipment.

How it works is this, as mentioned in the ‘Look what happens if you’re not looking’ section of this site, smash repairers chain a vehicle from both ends and pull it under pressure until the required length bumper to bumper is achieved, tonnes of pressure is applied to do this. Whilst the pressure is applied, the sill clamps (which are supposed to hold the car in place) are also subjected to the same pressure and consequently are stretched and distorted creating new and false measurement points from which repairers rely upon to be accurate. Under such conditions these points could vary many millimetres out of calibration.

To offset this, the commonly used repair equipment used by the industry requires to be calibrated. However the cost of calibrating this equipment is relatively high (about $7,000) which is very cost prohibitive to smash repairers particularly when the equipment needs to be sent off shore. This can take approx six weeks which causes tremendous disruptions to the workshop. However the truth of the matter is, with no government department or authorities ever checking equipment calibrations, smash repairers are simply not having it done.

Vehicles are being collision repaired on non calibrated equipment which gives inaccurate tolerance readings to repairers when they check measure their work ultimately creating compromised structural tolerances and diminished vehicle safety.

Vehicles are being collision repaired and compromised on equipment which is constantly out-of-calibration. Out-of-calibrated equipment gives inaccurate tolerance readings to repairers when they check measure their work ultimately causing compromised structural tolerances and diminished vehicle safety.

As the IVIC ‘Structural Tolerance Report’ becomes accepted and used in the market place, it is fair to say that it will not be long before smash repairers will begin to realise they will need to get serious and commence providing proper crashworthy repairs otherwise they face a real possibility of being charged with industrial manslaughter.

Vehicle owners should always ask their repairer to produce the manufacturer endorsements and recent valid calibration certificates for the equipment they (smash repairers) propose to use to repair your vehicle. If they cannot recent valid calibration certificates you must avoid using this repairer.

All structural collision damage should be repaired on manufacturer approved ‘Jigging’ equipment systems. Go to www.carbench.it for more information on manufacturer approved ‘Jigging’ smash repair equipment.