Betag Innovation goes beyond PDR with small damage repair demos

By Mike Davey

Hamilton, Ontario — May 27, 2016 — It was a whirlwind tour for Dave Flockhart, Jan Staub and the team from Betag Innovation. Normally based in Europe, Flockhart and the Betag team were in Canada for a few days to demonstrate the small damage repair solutions offered by Betag Innovations. The team demonstrated the system at a number of shops in the Toronto and Hamilton area during their stay.

They’ve also recently demonstrated the system at body shops in Alberta and British Columbia. Demonstrations are planned for autobody facilities in Manitoba in about two weeks.

Betag Innovation is based in Switzerland. Flockhart says they’ve been working with PBE Distributors and its parent company Color Compass to bring Betag’s repair solutions to Canada.

Repair solutions is the right term, according to Flockhart. He says that while the company does manufacture the equipment they sell, the focus is always on training techs to perform higher quality and more efficient repairs using that equipment.

“We focus on upskilling,” he says. “Training is a really big part of what we do. We want to teach technicians to performer higher quality repairs as well as producing the tools that allow them to do that.”

Betag Innovation has developed small damage repair and medium panel repair programs for BMW, and the programs are all part of the current BMW North America Group University curriculum, held at BMW’s training centres in New Jersey, California and South Carolina.

The demos in Canada have focused on Betag Innovation’s small damage repair proram. Flockhart draws a distinction between the Betag program and paintless dent repair (PDR).

“Our program encompasses PDR, but it’s really more about examining the options and choosing the best one for this particular repair,” he says. “Our program encompasses PDR, but it’s really more about being able to utilize a wide range of small damage repair techniques – including pushing a panel from the backside, heat induction and glue pulling – to deliver a high quality repair quickly and efficiently.”

Betag Innovation produces a full range of equipment and training for small damage repair, medium panel repair and plastic repair. But Flockhart says what’s really been turning heads lately is the company’s T-Hotbox.

The product premiered in Canada at the CCIF meeting in Toronto. The T-Hotbox is a handheld induction unit, designed to make the process of reducing or removing small dents simple and efficient. There is also a range of optional accessories available for the T-hotbox, including attachments for helping to release seized nuts and bolts and removing exterior trim and quarter lights. You can see the T-Hotbox in action in the video below.

“Currently a lot of body shops are outsourcing their PDR work. I think a lot of people equate it with repairing hail damage. For us, it’s one of the fundamentals of metal repair,” says Flockhart. “If you can get access to the backside of the metal and push it, you’ve expanded your options and you can make the quality of the repair much better. I think there are opportunities for collision centres to develop their skills sets. The time to become a really proficient PDR tech is significant, but the centres that encourage their technicians to embrace small damage repair have an opportunity to establish a significant competitive advantage.”

For more information on Betag Innovation, please visit betaginnovation.com. For more information on Color Compass, please visit colorcompass.com.

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