Giant jig boosts work
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by Steve Banner • Straightening twisted chassis is now much easier for technicians at Press Car & Cornmercial Bodyworks since the Avonmouth crash repairer installed a massive Canadianbuilt jig.
At more than 18 metres long and nearly 2.6 metres wide, it is the largest truck jig Chart Industries of Pickering, Ontario, has built, and Press believes it to be one of the biggest of its kind in the world. It is also the first in the UK and is boosting productivity, says Press's owner, Martin Warren, "No heavy lifting is required, which makes it quicker and easier to use than our existing chassis alignment equipment." he explains. "Lifting means there is a danger of losing skilled men who cannot cope with the physical effort as they get older."
The Chart's length means two trucks or three light commercials can be put on and repaired simultaneously. Warren says: "In the past an operator might have given a trailer he needed repairing to us, and the damaged tractor unit to another firm because he did not think we could handle both. Now we tackle in three days what, in the past, would have been a week's work."
Towers
The Chart jig boasts 18 towers offering more than 30 tonnes of pulling power apiece, each equipped with its own hydraulics. The pulling is done with chains with a variety of attachments for securing to the vehicle's body or chassis. The whole rig weighs upwards of 21 tonnes.
Priced from £65,000 to £112,000, depending on size and specification, cost is proving a stumbling block when it comes to convincing UK truck repairers of the jig's virtues, admits Graham Weaser, Chart's international director of sales.
Boasting productivity is vitally important to bodyshops, given the unwillingness of insurers to agree to big increases in repair rates.
Warren first became interested in what Chart had to offer when he saw a smaller version of the jig at a crash repair equipment show in Las Vegas.
He admits that ordering the monster was something of a gamble, and that his daughter and son, Emma and Dean —both of whom work in the business—needed some convincing.
With 38 employees and 2,415m2 of workshop space, Press is one of the biggest commercial vehicle repair shops in the West of England. It brings in accident-damaged trucks and trailers from as far afield as Exeter and south Wales, as well as serving its immediate area.
In business for 40 years, Chart has exported systems to Germany, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and Japan.
"We've got 15 installed there," says Weaser, "as well as selling them in the US and Canada."
The refinishing side of the business is equipped with three drive-through 19-metre lowbake paint ovens plus three conventional spray booths; one with two bays which will accommodate a pair of 44ft trailers.
Graphics
Press is part of ICI Autocolor's Fleetwatch network, and the insurers it works for include Eagle Star, Norwich Union and Royal & Sun Alliance. Press also has a graphics department for designing self-adhesive vinyl livery.
The company turns out about 50 truck and trailer bodies a year, a mixture of curtainsiders, dropsides, tippers and boxvans.
It fabricates its own dry freight body panels, and has a guillotine and brake press which can cut and fold steel up to 13mm thick.