BodyShop News

CIECAst Webinar Announced For May 2020

CIECA has announced its next CIECAst webinar: ADAS Calibrations – Do It Right and Document What You Do. The webinar will be held on Tuesday 19 May at 11 AM CST, will run for one hour and feature Brent Johnson, Director of Global Product Management for Collision at Chief Collision Technology.

“More than ever before, drivers are relying on advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) such as lane departure, automatic emergency braking and even autonomous driving features to keep them safe,” said Johnson. “While these systems represent major leaps forward in safety, they are not foolproof and these vehicles are still involved in collisions. When these systems need repair or replacement, they must be calibrated.”

Johnson will discuss the importance of providing a foundation for proper repairs and ADAS calibration procedures, and share best practices for repair record keeping and documentation.

“Depending on the vehicle manufacturer, the repair may require a dynamic calibration (drive around), static calibration (using targets) or even a combination of the two,” said Johnson. “If calibration is not done, the ADAS features may not work properly and can pose a safety risk to the driver. Because the repairing shop may be liable should something go wrong, it’s important for shops to keep detailed records of what repairs were performed and how the repair was done.”

With degrees in automation and business administration, Johnson has spent more than 20 years in the collision repair industry with Chief Collision Technology. His career with Chief has focused mostly in research and development around vehicle data and information technologies. In his current role, Johnson is responsible for all collision products. He has spent the last two years working with Chief’s partners, leading the project development of Chief’s Mosaic ADT, which the company says is the industry’s first automated ADAS calibration system that uses OEM tools, targets and procedures.

To register for the CIECAst, click here.

Attendees will have the opportunity to take a short quiz to earn credit toward a professional designation from the Automotive Management Institute (AMi) after the CIECAst webinar.

Geoff Richards Panel Beating Receives I-CAR Gold Class

I-CAR Australia has announced that Geoff Richards Panel Beating in Dubbo, New South Wales, has achieved I-CAR Gold Class status.

“We pride ourselves on being the panel industry leader in the region and continue to raise the bar and be the first in many areas,” said Tracey Richards, joint owner of Geoff Richards Panel Beating. “In 2018 we were awarded the MTA Green Stamp Accreditation for our environmental management and we are now thrilled to be awarded the prestigious I-CAR Gold Class Collision status.

“Irrespective of being located in the country, we want all 19 of our staff to have the opportunity to be their best and have access to the best training available worldwide, which is why we joined I-CAR. As a business, I-CAR Gold Class Collision status is not only a reflection of our monetary investment, but our staff’s personal commitment to completing over a thousand hours of training in their own time.

“The I-CAR team made the whole process seamless and are true professionals who genuinely care about the future of the panel industry.”

“It’s fantastic to see Geoff Richards Panel Beating achieve Gold Class status,” said Gary Wood, Gold Class Coordinator at I-CAR Australia. “Their attitude and dedication towards training since joining the programme has been first class. They have proven that location isn’t a barrier when it comes to professional development for their team, and participation in online virtual training allowed them to complete the role-relevant training required for the Gold Class accreditation. Geoff Richards [Panel Beating’s] commitment to ongoing training will ensure safety and quality for all their customers. Well done from everyone at I-CAR.”

New Dates For IBIS Global Summit 2020

The International Bodyshop Industry Symposium has moved its flagship event, the IBIS Global Summit 2020, to new dates later in the year to cope with international travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

The 20th edition of the IBIS Global Summit will now take place on 19-20 November at Le Méridien in Monaco, the same venue as originally planned for 8-10 June.

“All our delegates will be meeting up face to face in Monaco as we’d planned,” said Jason Moseley, CEO of IBIS. “Together as a strong IBIS community we’re going to make this a real celebration to remember – just what we’ll all need to get us back to normal.”

The first day of the event on 19 November will start with lunch, followed by conference sessions in the afternoon and a networking event in the evening. Day two will be packed with content and will culminate in a special 20th anniversary evening of celebration.

For further information and to find out how to be part of the IBIS Global Summit, contact IBIS head of sales Suzie Scott at [email protected] or +44 (0)7545 068455.

WIN Announces 2020 MIW Award Recipients

The Women’s Industry Network (WIN) has announced the 2020 honourees for the Most Influential Women (MIW) award, presented to women who have notable achievements in the collision repair industry throughout their career.

Since 1999, over 90 women have been recognised for their contributions to the collision repair industry. WIN says it has reviewed many worthy applicants and chosen three industry leaders to receive the MIW honours:

  • Sandee Lindorfer, Director, Allstate Insurance
  • Christy Jones, Owner of R Jones Collision 1
  • Kristle Bollans, Director, Replacement Accounts, The Hertz Corporation

“It is an honour to recognise these three women this year as the most influential women in the collision repair industry,” said Marie Peevy, President Automotive Training Coordinators, a 2018 MIW honouree, and Co-Chair of the 2020 MIW committee. “They are strong women who support other women and are passionate about what they do. They have the ability to dream and transform while helping others in the industry, their communities and families.”

Sandee Lindorfer

Lindorfer began her career in collision repair as a co-owner of a collision repair shop, then worked for a large MSO and later began her insurance career at Allstate Insurance, where she is now Director. She has been awarded the company’s Distinguished Leadership Award on five different occasions, as well as its Courageous Leadership Award by her claims officer team.

She serves on the I-CAR Board of Directors, participated on the advisory boards for CCC, Mitchell and Cpart, has spoken at several collision repair industry events, and serves on the WIN membership committee and in numerous capacities with CREF. She is also a supporter of the WINGS Program, Inc., and GIGI, a non-profit organisation for children with down syndrome.

Christy Jones

Jones has worked in the collision industry for 19 years and is owner of R Jones Collision 1, becoming the first female shop owner in Des Moines. She currently serves as an advisory member to the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) collision programme, is an active member of WIN, a platinum member of SCRS and a Gold Pin member of CIC. She was Secretary of the Iowa Collision Repair Association from 2010–2018 and was a committee member for the Iowa I-CAR committee.

In 2019 she was accepted into the Goldman Sachs 10,000 small business Iowa Cohort 2, has been an AkzoNobel Acoat Selected Sustaining Partner over 20 years, and was recently named one of the NAWBO Enterprising Women of the Year for Iowa in the US$1 to US$2 million category. In 2019, Jones and her friend supported Nyame Do, an educational facility in Ghana teaching women how to sew and to become independent when they graduate. They raised over US$6000 in one night and supported the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, raising over US$5000 for the cause.

Kristle Bollans

A collision industry veteran for 13 years, she received the Hertz Leadership Award in 2011, 2012 & 2013 – Hertz’s most coveted and prestigious award. Bollans said she considers it her duty and biggest responsibility to train, develop and mentor others within the business under her leadership at Hertz. She serves on the National Auto Body Board Council, on the WIN Planning Committee, and the Scholarship Selection Committee for CREF.

She is passionate about empowering women in all aspects of life and is also a committee member of Women Inspiring Leaders, Driving Execution and Results (W.I.L.D.E.R). From a community standpoint, she sits on the nurturing committee at her church, volunteers at the Homeless Support Service programme, has led giving campaigns to the National Cancer Society and the ASPCA, and volunteers her time as a teacher at 4K Sunday School.

All Auto Recalls: COVID-19 Raises Risk Of Using Unsafe Parts

All Auto Recalls (AAR) says that as COVID-19 shuts down vehicle parts manufacturing plants, demand for Recycled Original Equipment (ROE) vehicle parts will grow rapidly. As a result of faulty manufacture, some of these parts may be under active recall, creating a heightened risk of dangerous and potentially fatal recalled parts being fitted to cars.

The company says the law demands that faulty car parts are recalled, but the recall system appears to be flawed and does not always protect drivers.

AAR Managing Director, Chris Daglis, says Australians need to be aware of the increased risk and learn how to protect themselves. According to Daglis, the most important question every driver should ask of their repairer, insurer or seller of parts is: Do you know if a part is safe, not subject to recall and can be traced to my vehicle should it be recalled in the future?

“It’s not something many of us would give a second thought to,” said Daglis. “You have been in a collision, or your car is due for routine repairs and maintenance and we pass our vehicle over into the hands of our local mechanic or insurer. Once our car is returned, repaired and ready to drive, how many of us would question where the parts had been sourced and if they were safe? How would we know if one such part was in fact a dangerous part on the recall register? And how would we know if it were to be recalled in the future – could the part be traced to us and our vehicle?”

According to Daglis, ROE parts for collision repair have traditionally made up around five per cent of all parts used in Australia. However, with unprecedented demand following the outbreak of COVID-19, experts expect demand to rise dramatically, possibly beyond 20 per cent.

AAR says vehicle owners need to know that used parts fitted to their vehicle during repair were sourced from licensed automotive recyclers who have a lawful and robust recall process in place. The process must cover the life of the car to ensure traceability when the vehicle is sold. Daglis said this applies to all parts recyclers, including online operators.

“The recalls process is often overlooked by online sellers. It took me a short time to find over 70 unsafe, recalled Takata airbags available for sale in the online marketplaces. If I kept looking, I am sure that I would have found hundreds more. Online sellers must know if the items being placed online for sale are subject to an active recall, and they must have a recall process in place as part of their business process. Regardless of whether you are taking your vehicle to a mechanic, your insurer is fixing it, or you are a car enthusiast purchasing your own parts, knowing this could save your life,” explained Daglis.

“It is critical for mechanics, collision repairers, insurers and any on-seller of parts to have a recall checking capability so that they can alert their customer to a safety problem on their vehicle. Sometimes these recalls are critical; they are death traps. In the Takata airbag scenario, we are talking about some airbags being in vehicles that are now 24 years old, yet they were only recalled three months ago. The product safety website offers the automotive industry a static database that they can check against for recalls, or they can use the All Auto Recalls system which is dynamic, live and offers the ‘Auto Alert’ function. This will alert the mechanic if any of the vehicles they have entered into the system have a recall against them at any time in the future. Remember, a vehicle may be clear today, but recalled at some time in the future.”

AAR says the automotive recycling industry will play an increasingly important role in the parts supply chain in future, adding that ROE parts supplied by professional automotive recyclers that manage recalls effectively are critical to the long-term sustainability of the automotive repair and insurance industry.

Statistics provided by AAR reveal:

  • Recycled parts usage by country: Australia over five per cent, New Zealand 40 per cent, the USA 11 per cent and the UK two per cent.
  • Manufacturers recalled 29.3 million vehicles in 2018, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data
  • Between 2014 and 2016, the number of vehicles affected by recalls spiked, reaching 50.5 million in 2016
  • There are in excess of 1.5 million insurance claims each year in Australia, with parts making up around 50 per cent of a vehicle’s repair cost
  • More than one million vehicles are repaired due to road accidents every year, with more going to mechanics for routine repairs

Axalta Global Automotive Color Popularity Report 2019

Released in November last year, Axalta’s Global Automotive Color Popularity Report 2019 revealed that grey was the most popular colour for new cars in Europe. With 24 per cent of the market, grey narrowly edged out white on the old continent (23 per cent), but white remained the world’s most popular colour. The third most popular choice in Europe was black, and Axalta says that together, these three colours have a two-thirds market share. Silver has a 10 per cent market share while the leading “bright” colours are blue with 10 per cent, and red with six per cent.

Elke Dirks, Automotive OEM Colour Designer for Axalta in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the rise of grey came as no surprise. “Grey stands for practicality and professionalism, style and elegance,” said Dirks. “A grey car signals that the driver does not need to draw attention to themselves with a bright colour. Thanks to new pigments and effects, the previously rather inconspicuous colour is now often very stylish. It takes around two years to completely develop a new colour, so we have to recognise tomorrow’s colour trends today.”

Axalta says the OEM colouristic team evaluates a wide variety of indicators. In addition to analysing colour statistics as well as customer and model-related properties, they look at fashion and “zeitgeist” (the defining spirit or mood of a period of history). “Trends in clothing, furniture and accessories, even articles in magazines – everything can provide clues,” said Dirks.

Not every shade that Dirks and her colleague Christiane Luedecke develop makes it onto a car. Sometimes a colour fails due to production-related reasons, and sometimes it is because of the development of a repair formula. “The paint development for a car manufacturer does not only include the production paint, but also the right repair paint, because at some point body shops must be able to repair paint damage perfectly,” explained Harald Kloeckner, Head of Standox Training EMEA.

During the colour development process, Standox (an Axalta brand) is in regular contact with its OEM paint colleagues. “This co-operation makes the development of suitable repair formulas and paints easier,” added Kloeckner.

According to Standox, close coordination with OEMs is not a matter of course as some production paint manufacturers are not active in the refinish area, and vice versa.

Standox says the development of a paint repair formula is a lengthy and time-consuming procedure that includes microscopic analysis to identify pigments, the calculation of mixing formulas and the creation of spray patterns by robotics to obtain a neutral spray pattern. The results obtained are checked and refined.

Standox develops around 60 new mixing formulas every week and deploys them via its online colour software Standowin iQ. “It is a lot of effort, but we know we can ensure that our partners always achieve the best possible results,” said Kloeckner.

VACC: Auto Businesses In VIC Remain Open

Automotive businesses across Victoria remain open currently, performing services that are keeping motorists and business operators moving.

The Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC), which represents many of the state’s automotive businesses, says its members support essential services and are therefore essential themselves.

“Emergency services such as ambulance, police and fire crews absolutely require vehicles in which to perform their duties,” said Geoff Gwilym, CEO of the VACC. “Along with this are trucks hauling groceries and medical supplies to supermarkets, pharmacies and hospitals. This needs to keep occurring, and the automotive businesses that sell, maintain and service these vehicles need to remain open.

“If the automotive industry were to shut down, so too would many of the critical services that people rely on for health and safety, and the basics of life like food and medicine.”

The VACC says that it, along with many other organisations, also recognise that federal and state governments need to make tough decisions and are supporting their calls.

“VACC supports the recent decisions of government, but [Victorian] Premier [Daniel] Andrews has not yet stipulated what an essential service actually is,” said Gwilym. “Rather, he has outlined businesses and organisations that are currently classified non-essential. Automotive businesses such as workshops, body repair businesses and dealerships are performing essential services that organisations and the public rely upon. VACC asks that Premier Andrews acknowledge automotive as an essential service.”

I-CAR AU Indicates Policy Amid Coronavirus

I-CAR Australia has confirmed its position on its training programmes as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread throughout Australia and globally.

The new policy was communicated in a letter personally addressed to I-CAR members by Mark Czvitkovits, CEO of I-CAR Australia.

According to the letter, all face-to-face training programmes have been postponed until further notice since yesterday. The programmes affected include welding certifications, live classroom and OEM specific training. Until the complete picture of the spread of this disease is fully understood, I-CAR said it will adhere to Australian government guidelines.

I-CAR said that no new events will be scheduled until the current situation is under control and the guidelines in place around the COVID-19 impact are reduced, but it will continue offering training courses in both the virtual and online training platforms to allow businesses to fulfill their training programme requirements, including attaining or renewing Gold Class or AMBRA accreditation.

To ensure ongoing training needs can be met, I-CAR will continually update and introduce more new online courses as well as rescheduling more virtual training dates so businesses are not unduly affected. There are over 35 virtual classroom programmes and more than 22 online programmes that allow for training when and where needed.

AIC Opens Additive Manufacturing Centre

Auto Innovation Centre (AIC) has unveiled its new facility which provides additive manufacturing, a crucial component of the centre’s capability.

The AIC says additive manufacturing allows designers to test product fitment, identify issues or potential design problems and to study, improve and optimise. 3D printers can produce intricate and difficult designs that are not simple or cheaply replicated with regular equipment or production techniques.

The AIC’s new Additive Manufacturing Centre has three different printers, each providing different options for automotive product developers to suit their requirements.

AIC said for companies that are prototyping or want to produce small production runs, the HP Jet Fusion 580 Colour can create strong, useable parts and can print in colour.  An example of a part created in the 3D printer is a brake duct which is intricate and has a thin wall, making it well suited to additive manufacturing.

The company says it has purchased a 3D Systems Figure 4 for smaller part prototyping, short production runs and quality creations with a high level of surface detail. The Figure 4 uses stereolithography to create parts that may ordinarily be injection moulded, and a variety of resins are available to produce parts with varying flexibility, from rubberised to nylon.

AIC added that the Stratasys F370 is an FDM machine with a large build bed, capable of producing larger creations quickly and is another strong option for prototyping. Typical uses for the machine are large packaging studies where bulk volume accuracy is more important than detailed surface finish.

“Additive manufacturing is an integral part of our new product development,” said Heath Moore, General Manager at Harrop Engineering. “It is critical for us being able to get to market sooner with a product that has been tested and validated before full production occurs. The result is savings in time and costs throughout our production process.”

The AIC additive manufacturing facilities have an in-house fleet of new production vehicles and a fully equipped workshop. Companies will be able to get 3D scan information and measurements to assist CAD creation. After printing, companies can test-fit products to the AIC fleet vehicles.

“Our purpose is to assist business to bring products to market,” said Luke Truskinger, Managing Director at AIC. “Additive manufacturing is one important service offering that provides new opportunities to aftermarket companies across Australia.”

CIECAst Webinar Announced For April 2020

CIECA has announced its next CIECAst webinar – The Importance of OEM Certifications. The webinar will be held on Tuesday 21 April at 11 AM CST, will run for one hour and feature Connor Smith, Senior Manager of OEM at CARSTAR.

Smith will talk about the importance of OEM guidelines in an environment of frequent vehicle advancement. He will also share how the steps to review guidelines can be added to the repair process, where information can be accessed and how to make it a priority for teams.

Smith is a long-time member of CARSTAR, holding various positions across departments including insurance, analytics, procurement and operations before moving into his current role. Smith works closely with vehicle manufacturers to better understand vehicle advancements and shares best practices with facilities. He also helps collision repairers understand the importance of becoming certified.

To register for the CIECAst, click here.

Attendees will have the opportunity to take a short quiz to earn credit toward a professional designation from the Automotive Management Institute (AMi) after the CIECAst webinar.