By CRM Staff
Las Vegas, Nevada — November 1, 2016 — SEMA has named the winners of the 2017 New Products Showcase Awards. According to show management, the awards are given to the most innovative and cutting-edge products hitting the market in 2017.
Winners were selected based on a variety of factors, including quality, marketability, innovation, technology and consumer appeal.
The 2017 New Product Awards winners in the Collision Repair & Refinish category are Remote Assisted Programming (RAP) from Drew Technologies, Like90 Quick Check Temporary Gloss Simulator from Bonding Solutions and the Aluminum T-Hotbox from Betag Innovation.
Drew Technologies took the top spot in the category with its Remote Assisted Programming (RAP) kit. In essence, the kit allows any shop to reflash a vehicle’s J2534 controllers. Created by the Society of Automotive Engineers, J2534 is a standard for communications between a computer and a vehicle.
J2534 programming is a specialized task, but Drew Technologies says the RAP kit allows any shop to offer this service. The kit includes a Windows PC, J2534 device, modem, OEM subscriptions and battery maintainer.
According to Drew Technologies, techs can simply plug in the kit, call the company’s toll-free number and they flash the car for you through remote access. Once the operation is complete, the tech simply packs the kit up until the next time it’s needed. The shop only pays for each time the service is used, and Drew Technologies guarantees success.
Bonding Solutions took one of the Runner-Up spots with its Like90 Quick Check Temporary Gloss Simulator. This is a sprayable product with several uses in the body shop. According to Bonding Solutions, Like90 QuickCheck simulates the depth and clarity of fresh clear on base, eliminating the need to spray expensive clear coat on spray-out cards. Unlike the clearcoat from the spray gun, Quick Check can be sprayed anywhere that is convenient or wherever the lighting is best for matching colour. It also dissipates completely so another colour coat can be applied to the same spray-out card if the first try does not match.
Bonding Solutions says Quick Check requires no clean-up and contains no isocyanates. Quick Check can also be used as a fast, easy way to check repaired panels for defects, staying wet long enough to evaluate the straightness of repaired panels, and it’s safe to spray over cured plastic filler.
The Aluminum T-Hotbox from Betag Innovations also took a Runner-Up award. Collision Repair magazine reported on this product in May, when the team from Betag Innovations was demonstrating it at various locations across Canada.
The T-Hotbox is a handheld unit with several settings that can be adjusted depending on its application. The time of its use can be preset, which can be helpful to avoid burning paint during dent removal. The power level can also be set independently.
