Nomenclature and functionality of principal machinery.
The principal machinery necessary to a body shop are listed as follows, together with a short explanation.
MONOCOQUE CHECK BENCH: the bench to check monocoque is a lifter bridge with four columns to which the car is hooked. Equipped with particular sliding plates thanks to which the damaged vehicle can be measured out, it is also designed to fasten a specific hydraulic press used for draft and calibration of the chassis.
FURNACE CABIN: cabin where the car is taken when ready for painting. Equipped with systems of air suction and filtering, which, other than being environmentally friendly, avoid dust to settle on the wet paint, it allows the paint to dry rapidly thanks to a burner that heats the air up to 60° C. The furnace cabins of the latest generation use, instead of the traditional burner, a mobile infrared arc allowing a more effective and faster drying.
SUCTION WORKTOP: area equipped for quick repair of small portions of a car. It allows rapid drying with low energy consumption and therefore it is environmentally-friendly.
INFRARED AND ARC LAMPS: lamps that allow fast and complete drying of the paints. Some types of infrared (arc) allow fast and definitive drying by heating only the “damp” at very high temperatures for short periods of time, without interacting with metals and plastics, if not for induction. The latter type of drying corresponds exactly to that carried out by car industries during the manufacturing of a first structure.
SUCTION SYSTEMS: systems that allow for a virtually total suction of dust resulting from sandpapering and of solvents contained in paints and insulating products. Other than ensuring the absence of dust in the painting process, they allow for the protection of the health of operators, in every single phase of the preparation.
TINTOMETER/DISPENSER: is a device used to mix the different bases that make up the original paint of the car. To each paint code present on the car corresponds one or more coloured cardboards to compare the car paint; to each cardboard corresponds a formula provided by the paint manufacturer, where the type as well as the percentage of the bases to be used can be read.
SPOTTER: special equipment that uses copper bits of various shapes and sizes to be welded, through an electric arc, to the stripped metal sheet to be repaired, in order to draft any slight introflections. It is designed and used mainly to restore sheet metal boxes that are not accessible from the internal part of the vehicle through common levers.