Autopromotec 2009: May a “Busy Time” for Corghi

Corghi stated that May 2009 was a busy time for Corghi, both at home and abroad. In the USA – one of Corghi’s most important business areas – the company opened a new facility in Hamilton, Ohio, designed to allow Corghi to offer its American customers a comprehensive pre- and aftersales service with direct replacement of parts. By investing in the area, Corghi has demonstrated its commitment to the North American market in these difficult economic times.

Back in Italy, about 10km from Corghi’s original premises in Correggio, the finishing touches are being added to a new 20,000sqm production facility. This new plant will consolidate a number of production processes, such as cutting, bending, welding and painting as well as introducing a greater degree of automation and environmental friendliness.

Corghi had a significant presence at the 23rd Autopromotec exhibition with a variety of recently-introduced machines. Marketing director Pierantonio Gallu talked T&A through the highlights of the products on show. New to the tyre changing range were the Monster AGTT and the Artiglio 500; the first of these is designed for commercial vehicle wheels and can handle rims up to 58” without extensions. It incorporates the “Leva la Leva” technology invented by Corghi in 2001. Operator effort is kept to a minimum and the self-supporting frame is ergonomically designed to eliminate obstacles to operator movement.

For changing car tyres, the latest in the Artiglio range is the Artiglio 500. This too incorporates the “Leva la Leva” system and the machine can handle rims from 12” up to 32”. Corghi has developed “Blue Light” – a new, sophisticated wheel balancing technology aimed at the upper end of the market. High tech yet user-friendly, it incorporates Touchscreen, Real Time, Blue light and Touchless technologies. The newest wheel balancer on the Corghi stand was the EM7270, which is a microprocessor-operated, electronic wheel balancer, based on the tried and tested EM7240.

The final new product was a wheel aligner from the new Black Tech X Series, the latest generation of Corghi’s Black Tech family. Corghi’s latest aligners feature the Cal One Touch steering wheel rotation sensor calibration system, which the company says is essential for correctly aligning wheels on cars equipped with ESP, adaptive suspensions, dynamic steering, electric power assisted steering and adaptive lighting systems.

Corghi has recently been awarded world-level type approval for a number of products. These include Blue Light top-of-the-range wheel balancers for the BMW and VW networks, the new EM74 and and EM 72 wheel balancers for all brands of the VW Group and the Erco 301 TY lift for the new Toyota IQ city car. Corghi has had a long relationship with Ferrari and Maserati and these ties have recently been renewed, confirming Corghi as the sole supplier for the entire range of wheel service machines used by their workshops.