Chris Anthony
Editor, Tyrepress.com/Tyres & Accessories
Tyre Industry Publications, Federation House, Station Road, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 2SA, United Kingdom
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(Tire Review/Akron) Hennessy Industries has introduced the three new tire/wheel balancers – the Coats 775, 875 and 1175. Hennessy said the hree new models were designed to help tire dealers add revenue and generate repeat business. “These new balancers are ideal first or back-up machines for shops that want to keep balancing services in-house,” said Don Vanderheyden, Hennessy’s group marketing manager for wheel-service solutions. “All three models have self-calibration accuracy to within 1/100 of an ounce, making balancing fast and efficient, even for a new technician.”
The three new space-saving balancers also include features found on more expensive machines, said Hennessy, such as an integrated LED matrix display, which provides technicians with a keypad and easy-to-read visual cues to help promote proper balancing techniques and faster bay turnaround times. The Coats 775 can handle tyres up to 100 pounds; the Coats 875 and 1175 models were designed for larger volumes, holding tyres as heavy as 130 pounds and 150 pounds, respectively.
Visitors and delegates to Tyrexpo Africa 2008, southern Africa’s leading tyre trade exhibition, can now pre-register online for next March’s event by visiting www.eci-international.com The opening of the easy-to-use online registration process marks another milestone in the countdown to the exhibition, which takes place in the Sandton Convention Centre from March 4 to 6 2008.
In addition to taking advance registrations, show organiser ECI has launched a major promotional drive to market the show to tyre industry professionals in Africa and around the world. Over the next four months, more than 80,000 free-entry visitor tickets will be distributed to potential delegates via an extensive campaign featuring direct mail, trade press advertising, ticket inserts and exhibitor mailings. In addition to the mainstream tyre industries, the exhibition will target interest from the important mining, quarrying and industrial tyre markets.
ECI sales director Rowena Suthers says that the drive to attract visitors is a vital stage in the build up to the exhibition: “Our visitor marketing campaign is now in full swing with just four full months to go before the exhibition opens its doors. We’ll be distributing around 80,000 tickets to trade buyers who we think will have an interest in attending Tyrexpo Africa.
Visitors to May’s Brityrex exhibition and the CV show were amongst the first in the UK to be given a first hand demonstration of the latest wheel balancer on offer from Apaseal – the Corghi EM7440. This product from the renowned Italian firm features an ergonomic design and a wide flat surface area, which Apaseal claims is ideal for accommodating any required weights and accessories. The unit’s adjustable display utilises on-screen piezoelectric touch sensitive technology, allowing for user-friendly operation and eliminating the need for a keyboard that would take up workspace otherwise put to better use.
The EM7440 has a 40mm diameter shaft that extends from the balancer across the distance of the flange face. The shaft can carry a maximum load of 75kg even without the unit being affixed to the ground. Balancing speeds start from a low launch speed of 70rpm, with 85 and 98rpm also available. The low balancing speed minimises wheel spin times, thereby saving energy and reducing strain on rotating components. Rim diameters up to 30 inches and widths of up to 20 inches can be accommodated.
It remains business as usual for Nottingham based leading automotive and service equipment specialists Beissbarth following the company’s acquisition by Bosch in April, and the established Beissbarth range of products continue to find favour with UK customers.
Introduced in 2006, the company’s latest addition to their tyre changing line up is the MS67 tyre changer for low profile, run-flat tyres and wide rims, and Beissbarth say this is a unit that offers safe and simple tyre changing, even for the most difficult tyre rim combinations. The Servomat MS67 tyre changer has been designed to meet our ubiquitous health and safety regulations while providing a fast and efficient service for technicians and customers.
“Tyre changing is no longer a simple operation. A bit more care and attention is involved,” commented a member of the Beissbarth team that Tyres & Accessories spoke to. Those involved in the business will be well and truly aware of this; many changes, both in terms of tyre technology and official legislation, have impacted the tyre industry. With Health and Safety taking an increasingly humourless approach to the lifting of heavy objects in the workplace, a key safety feature built into the MS67 is a definite bonus. The unit comes equipped with a pneumatic lift that raises the tyre onto the table without the fitter having to lift the heavy wheel and tyre assembly. This ensures that the manual handling of tyre and wheel assemblies is kept to a minimum.
When asked how an Italian company ended up with English sounding name, the team at Butler reply that the moniker its founders agreed upon back in 1988 expresses one of their goals – to take a different and better approach to client service. And from their premises near the supercar mecca of Modena the company set out not only to provide a high level of service, but also to manufacture workshop equipment they hoped would turn upside-down a number of established ideas about the design and construction of these machines.
Nearly twenty years later Butler still adheres to these principles. The company’s acquisition by the Sa.Mi.Ro. Group in February 2006 has strengthened Butler’s position in the global equipment market and enabled it to continue offering customers a wide range of Italian manufactured equipment. This commitment to retaining production locally and within the Sa.Mi.Ro. Group has been reinforced by the construction of new a new purpose-built 20,000 square metre facility – more than double the size of the existing premises – in the nearby town of Rolo. Butler will transfer its operations to the Rolo site in the first half of 2008.
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Snap-on Equipment Ltd., the new name for the company that distributes two long-established names in the garage equipment industry – Hoffman and John Bean – is no newcomer to the business. Hofmann produced their first balancer way back in 1932, and at the same time across the Atlantic John Bean began marketing their first wheel alignment machine. These two Snap-on Equipment mainstays have focused upon manufacturing premium level equipment for the industry ever since. In the UK Snap-on Limited call the Thames Valley their home, and recently Tyres & Accessories travelled to the company’s Reading headquarters to meet with new general manager Chris Behan and UK sales manager, Chris Pleass.
By the time T&A met Chris Behan in mid-July he’d already spent four months in the hot seat at Snap-on Equipment, and was drawing on his considerable management experience – Behan has worked with A&M Electric, Atlas Copco and AEG and, most recently as general manager for Tornado Fixings – to head up the company’s ambitious short and medium term plans. “The wheel service market – balancers, changers, aligners, is worth £170 million in total,” he said. “So there’s plenty of room to grow.”
Fasep has been manufacturing tyre servicing equipment since 1969 when it introduced the Apsera, the company’s very first on the car wheel balancer. Since that time the Italian firm has been an innovator in the field, introducing the world’s first monitor equipped wheel balancer in 1983 – the Videotronic 2000 – and the first computer controlled balancer in 1989.
The company’s latest wheel balancers, including the Videotronic Omega 585, benefit from this pedigree. The V585 can balance wheels with rims between 8 and 26-inches in diameter (or 8 and 23-inches if using the Alu-S function on alloy wheels), measuring a wheel’s balance within 4 to 15 seconds. The balancer utilises the same 16-bit technology Fasep is introducing on all new wheel balancing equipment, the advantage being that more accurate readings can be obtained from balancing performed at speeds under 100rpm. In fact, Fasep claim that low speed balancing – the V585 operates at 98rpm – is 16 times more accurate than high speed balancing using the previous 10-bit microprocessors.
Wheel & tyre equipment specialists Hofmann Megaplan enjoyed another successful show at this years Brityrex exhibition. The company believes this year’s event to be every bit as good as the 2005 exhibition, which Managing Director James Boon labelled at the time as the best show he had ever attended. “Brityrex 2005 was a hard act to follow for us, but the move to Manchester this year and all the improvements that went with it means that without doubt 2007 will prove to be even better both in terms of immediate sales and long term projects,” commented Mr. Boon.
“I think it’s a huge disappointment that this show doesn’t get more support from the tyre manufacturers, and the effort put in by everybody else really and truthfully puts them to shame for not supporting such an event. That said, the quality of visitor and atmosphere of the new venue ensured we had another great exhibition, and I think the organisers deserve some real praise for putting on a fantastic, well organised and high profile exhibition despite two years of negativity from many within the industry”.
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A new tyre changer for low profile, run-flat tyres and wide wheels offers safe and simple tyre changing, even for the most difficult tyre rim combinations. Beissbarth is launching the MS67 tyre changer, designed to meet the ever-present health and safety regulations, and provide a fast and efficient service for technicians and customers.
Snap-on Equipment has appointed Alan Wood as Business Development Manager for its range of Hofmann and John Bean wheel service equipment. Mr. Wood has over 25 years’ experience in the tyre service industry having worked with companies, including Kwik-Fit, Supertracker & Beissbarth UK.
Following the success of the company’s appearance at last year’s ATS show, JIA Sources International Ltd has decided to increase its stand floor-space to almost five times the area it occupied last year. On the stand will be the Nitro-Ride – Nitrogen Inflation System. Worldwide sales for this product are said to have exceeded all expectations.
Supply Direct has just published a new catalogue and price list. The catalogue features a full range of two-post lifts, four-posts lifts, scissor lifts, compressors, wheel aligners, tyre changers, wheel balancers, MOT bays (including the new Automated Test Lane) and a full variety of other garage equipment. Details for every product include 3D CAD drawings with full dimensions, and complete specification tables for every piece of equipment.
Brityrex International 2007 received a big boost in the new year when Beissbarth UK reserved a stand area of 85 square metres – the largest exhibition stand in the company’s history.
Philip Hodges, MD of Beissbarth UK, explained that 2007 will see the UK launch of the Beissbarth Touchless wheel aligner in the UK. As the name suggests, this is a completely no-contact alignment system – the first of its kind in the world – and one which Philip believes will have a major impact on wheel alignment in the UK. Certainly, when the system had its world premiere at Autopromotec in Bologna, it drew large crowds throughout the show.
(Australia/Australian Tyre Dealer) Corghi, the world’s largest Italian manufacturer of tyre service equipment, is aiming to increase its presence in Australia.
After a number of years in the doldrums, Corghi brand wants to play a major role in the Australian tyre market again. Under newly-appointed general manager, Jonathan Gant, Corghi is looking to replicate the success it has enjoyed in New Zealand, where its Italian-made wheel balancers and tyre changers enjoy more than 60 per cent market share.
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