By Jeff Sanford
Detroit, Michigan — July 31. 2015 — Equipment supplier Chief Automotive Technologies had a large presence at this year’s NACE event. The company offered up training demos. Attendees were able to witness Chief’s latest aluminum joining equipment in action.
“Many collision repair professionals are still in the learning phase with aluminum, and the metal’s use in car and truck bodies continues to evolve,” according to Bob Holland, Director of Collision in North and South America for Chief parent company, Vehicle Service Group (VSG). “That’s why Chief’s NACE objectives are to educate attendees about aluminum and help them upgrade their shops with the newest advanced aluminum welders and shop tools.”
As a way of helping the industry make this transition Chief is introducing a new rivet gun, the PNP90, into the North American market. “We brought out a new welder. But we also wanted to bring out the rivet gun,” said a Chief spokesperson on the NACE convention floor. “We find a lot of places are saying, ‘If we’re going to update the welder, let’s update all of it at once.’” The new rivet gun can handle any of the various shapes and sizes of rivets being offered by the OEMs.
In addition to the demos Chief staff also led the “Collision Repair 2015 Design Based Repair” session at NACE. The lecture was designed to help technicians, estimators and appraisers develop an overview of the vehicle design knowledge needed to properly return damaged cars and trucks to OEM specifications.
This past week, Chief also announced it has added best practices guides, how-to videos and other educational materials to its website, chiefautomotive.com. Chief’s aluminum repair page includes information about a holding, pulling and welding tools, plus the Aluminum Industry Terms Guide, a primer on aluminum terminology like “GMA,” “PNGV” and “heat shrinking.”
