If you are planning to open an alignment centre, then you must have the following Equipment in your alignment centre.
Air Compressor
Tyre changer
Wheel Balancer
Wheel Aligner
Nitrogen Filling station
These are the five important must have tool and equipment needed for any alignment centre
1. Air Compressor
Why Air Compressor needed in Alignment centre?
Air compressor is a pneumatic device which forcing the air into the compressor tank and pressurizing and save the air at a particular pressure level when it was needed means the pressurized air will be release through a pipe. When the tank pressure reaches its lower limit means again the compressor turn on and pressurizing the air for future use.
In a workshop most of the tools and Equipments are working with the help of pneumatic air energy with the help of compressor.
Small tools such as nail guns, impact wrenches and some Big Equipments like Tyre changer, air inflator also using pneumatic energy only.
So, for an alignment centre Compressor is a must having tools and equipment.
How to choose a perfect compressor for my workshop?
Before choosing the compressor for workshop, we must first understand the potential then select the compressor.
If you are having a small car workshop means the max pressure needed for the car is up to 75 PSI so it was better to go with 10 HP/ 12 Bar compressor.
In market there are so many models are available, but the above combination is better to full fill the complete need for a workshop.
In 10HP / 12 Bar compressor can quickly pressurized the air into the Tank with less amount of time and power otherwise if your go with 5HP / 12 Bar it took High time and power to generate pressurized air.
Or else, if you are running a Truck wheel alignment centre means better go with 15 HP/15 Bar Air compressor to full fill all the needs in that workshop because normally a heavy commercial vehicle having multiple tyres and for a single tyre it required 140 – 180 PSI to fill a single tyre. If you are choosing a 10 HP or less compressor means you need not be able to fill a single tyre at a moments.
For a Heavy commercial vehicle alignment centre means it is better to go with 15HP / 15 Bar Air compressor.
2. Tyre Changer
What is Tyre changer and its uses?
A Tyre changer is a mechanical machine which help the technicians to mount and demount the tyre from wheel.
Previously we normal mount and demount the tyre in a wheel manually with the help of wrenches and some tools. It requires some physical strength to do that.
To make this process easy the mechanical tyre changer is introduced in the market, it was automatically mount and demount the tyre from the wheel without any physical strength needed.
Now a days the tyre changer is usually pneumatically operate which means with the help of compressor it will work.
What happen if we mount or demount the tyre from the wheel manually?
As we discussed above for manual mounting or demounting of tyres require some tools and equipment and physical strength is also needed.
While we are demounting the tyre from the wheel rim, we must use wrenches to loosen the corner of tyre so at the time because of our physical strength scratches or damage will may happen for tyre and wheel rim as well.
We must use hammer and some other tools for beads breaking and it is very difficult if the tyre condition is worst.
Advantage of using Tyre changer.
How to choose a best tyre changer for your workshop?
Tyre changer is a machine which helps the technicians to mount and demount the tyre from the wheel rim.
To choose a best tyre changer it will full fill the following requirement.
3. Wheel Balancer
What is Wheel Balancer and its uses?
Wheel balancing is the process of balancing the weight of a tyre and wheel assembly so that it travels evenly at high speeds.
What happen if the wheels are not balanced?
Due to improper wheel balancing leads to following issues.
1. Tyre Bust
2. Alignment problem
3. High Vibration
4. High Tyre pressure and temperature
5. High Tyre wear
6. Shocks & suspension bush defective
7. Excessive Run out on wheels
How Tyre Balancing done?
The main goal of Tyre Balancing is to distribute the weight equally around the entire circumference of Tyre. It is very necessary while changing tyre or during tyre rotation.
Balancing requires putting a mounted wheel and tyre on a balancer, which centres the wheel and spins it to determine where the weights should go on wheel.
Benefits of Wheel Balancing 
4. Wheel Alignment
What is meant by wheel alignment of a vehicle?
Wheel alignment is a process of correct the angles of the tyre so that only they came into contact with the road as per the vehicle manufacturer standard.
In a vehicle there are so many angles are available.
Types of angles available in Car:
In a car the most commonly available angles are
1. Caster angle
2. Camber angle
3. Toe angle
To adjusting the above angles to achieve the alignment in a vehicle.
Types of angles available in Heavy commercial vehicle:
In a Heavy commercial vehicle, the following angle are available
1. Thrust Angle
2. Scrub angle
3. Toe angle
4. Parallelism
5. Setback
By adjusting the above angles to achieve the alignment as per the vehicle manufacturer standards.
How 3D wheel aligner working? How it was better than CCD?
The new 3D wheel aligner is working with the help of 3D imaging technology with the help of digital camera to acquire the data from the vehicle.
Previously everyone using CCD technology, in that the process of doing alignment took more time and it was very difficult to lift and jack up the vehicle.
CCD technology usually uses sensor arm and it was attached to the vehicle wheel for calculate the alignment angle. It was time taking process and it require more manpower as well.
In the new 3D technology, the digital camera uses high resolution image capture technology to recognize the angles in a tyre with the help of Wheel Bracket and Target plate fixed on tyre.
It was very easy to fix and remove from the wheels and it’s also requiring very less manpower for entire operation.
The maintenance cost of CCD machine is very when compared to 3D technology because of there is no sensor using in 3D technology.
There is no need of frequent calibration is required for 3D technology wheel alignment machine. But in CCD machine periodic calibration is required.
When compared to CCD technology, alignment done through 3D technology wheel aligner is very easier and more productive.
How often wheel alignment is needed for a Heavy commercial Vehicle?
5.Nitrogen Filling station
Nitrogen filling machine is nothing but generating Nitrogen air by extracting or separating nitrogen air from normal air from the compressor through some internal process.
Here we can see why Nitrogen air is important and its uses.
46% high speed car driving accident was caused by tyre problems over-inflation takes its 70%
Nitrogen filling tyres will make correct inflation which will highly reduce the over-inflation accidents
20 years ago, developed countries uses NITROGEN for extending the tyres life and performance.
Tyres of airplanes, formula cars, racing cars, saloon cars, heavy duty trucks and small vehicles were inflated with nitrogen to maintain the high speed and high duty transportation.
What are all the advantages of Filling Nitrogen air into the tyres?
The advantages of filling Nitrogen air:
Conclusion:
A completely filled Equipments in a workshop give a complete solution to the customer. Choose the right machine for your alignment centre with advance and futuristic technology.
