Page 36 - The Tyreman V45 2014-3

Local Industrial News
本地行业动态
Josam i-Track - Wheel & Axle Alignment at It
Can you do a proper wheel align- ment of your truck if the rims are bent or distorted? With Josam, you can.
The ingenious part of this method is that Josam has taken away the time-consum- ing compensation for rim distortion that is carried out by hand on the wheel adapter. The compensation part of the measuring method is now replaced by a function in which the wheel is turned or rolled 180 degrees and the software calculates the rim skewness automatically.
In Malaysia, if wheel alignment for pas- senger vehicles is akin to the favoured son, then WA for heavy vehicles is the proverbial neglected stepson. Many commercial vehicle tyre shops do not even have wheel alignment equipment. Of those who do, many have expensive computerised WA systems. Yet they have one thing in common. They all do front wheel alignment only and generally this merely involves toe adjustment. Trailer wheel alignment is hardly done and they would be at a loss doing double steer axle alignment.
Wheel alignment is more often than not an ‘after abnormal tyre wear is detected’ activity. Given the cost of tyres and the rising cost of fuel, it should be a diagnos- tic ‘before tyre wear has happened’ activ- ity. The problem to date is that the wheel alignment process is a fairly involved and time consuming process even when us- ing a computerised system. If the WA process can be speeded up and is much easier to use, then one could practically diagnose all vehicles coming into the workshop; as part of the vehicle mainte- nance protocol, to detect and correct po- tential alignment related tyre wear before it occurs.
The Josam i-Track is designed with this aim in mind. The scales are independent of the vehicle being measured. For bus- es, particularly independent suspension buses, the time saving is very substan- tial indeed. The technicians can attest to
buses before alignment can start. All WA systems in the market measure one axle at a time. With the i-Track, all axles and wheels are measured simultaneously in one sequence.
The new generation Josam Truckaligner 180 is a mobile system; it not only automati- cally compensate for distorted rims but now measure all axles and wheels in one pro- cedure.
It takes less than 5 minutes to do a wheel alignment check on a 4x2 vehicle for toe, camber and out-off-square axles for both front and rear axles. For a 3-axle vehicle, it takes about 6 minutes.
If the truck has more than 1 axle, you need all axles and wheels aligned. With proper wheel alignment, savings that can be achieved include 15 to 50 per cent reduced tyre wear; 2 to 10 per cent lower fuel consumption; and reduced mechanical wear in bushes, bearings, and joints.
The result is a driver who does not need to do battle with the steering wheel all day. Manbeni Tools (M) Sdn Bhd, Josam’s sole distributor in Malaysia, runs product presen- tation and demonstration on request.
34 tyreman 2014/3
s