MAHA India’s continued thrust on truck wheel alignment

MAHA India Automotive Testing Equipment Private Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of MAHA Maschinenbau Haldenwang GmbH & Co. KG, a leading manufacturer of high quality vehicle safety testing and lifting equipment for over four decades.

The company presented two of its latest products at Autoserve – the LITE 3 headlight tester and TruckCam’s wheel alignment system.

Dark country roads pose a significant security risk. Three times more car accidents occur at night than during the day. Automobile manufacturers put unbelievable amounts of potential in the development of modern light systems which allow maximum illumination of the road with minimum glare for other road users.

But test and safety technology must be able to inspect these highly developed headlights quickly and precisely and to adjust them easily. The LITE 3, the MAHA headlight tester is the right innovative solution.

Using this headlight tester an exact and fast headlight inspection of the new lighting systems in passenger cars and trucks is possible. By directly pressing individual keys all the various lights can be tested, i.e., high beams, fog lights, daytime lights and adaptive front headlight systems.

The headlight tester independently determines a test result and passes it on to the LCD graphic display for evaluation. The display shows information on the light position, yaw angle, intensity, hotspot, etc. In addition the headlight image is shown graphically. The data can be transferred to a computer.

Ergonomic handling and a durable and maintenance-free design facilitate easy operation. An ‘acoustic setting mode’ allows for quick and convenient headlight adjustment, without visual contact with the headlight tester.

The LITE 3 is ideal for daily use using simple and clear user guidance (graphic menu on a multi-functional LCD display). The latest electronic and camera technology (individually used “high dynamic range CMOS camera”) digitalizes the headlight image and passes it on for processing to the internal control electronics. Using a single-chip processor with flash memory adoptions to future statutory changes can be done at any time.

The LITE 3 corresponds with the state-of-the-art technology. Precise inspection of even the latest headlight technology has become a reality. It is an almost inconspicuous element of the testing and safety technology sector. Yet its development is revolutionary and its use of enormous importance since it helps in preventing accidents, thereby saving precious lives.

TruckCam wheel alignment

Tyre wear and high fuel consumption are known problems among truck and bus owners around the world. A major cause for this is often misalignment of wheels and axles. Tests have shown that properly aligned vehicles can save up to eight per cent on fuel consumption and more than 30 per cent on the lifetime of tyres. This will also contribute to better driving comfort, safer traffic conditions and a better environment.

TruckCam is a Swedish company specializing in alignment systems for commercial vehicles. It is the only provider of complete alignment solutions for commercial vehicle manufacturing process and for OE dealers. It has played an important role in developing alignment equipment in various stages of manufacturing.

The TruckCam system is very easy to operate, and the computer program guides the mechanic through measurement steps which simplify training and increase the security of correct alignments.

Traditionally it has been necessary to perform a “run-out” of the wheel clamp after fitting it on the wheel, to avoid angle errors deriving from a skew attachment or a skew rim. This involves jacking up all axles and spinning the wheels while adjusting the wheel clamp spindles to eliminate spindle/bearing misalignment. With the rolling method, operators can skip the manual ‘run-out’ completely. Instead a measurement is done just as the vehicle stands on the floor, followed by rolling the vehicle so that the wheels turn half a turn.

The TruckCam system by this method is able to measure before and after rolling and can correct errors at the wheel clamp. With the rolling method the system is completely portable, offering the possibility, for instance, to diagnose a fleet of vehicles outdoors in a very short time.

Frame measurement software and targets can be added to the wheel alignment system offering deformation measurements of frames and chassis. The system measures side bend, vertical bend, tilt and twist. Up to six measurement points along the chassis can be included in the graphical 3D report generated by the software.

Apart from being the preferred choice of leading truck and axle manufacturers globally, TruckCam wheel alignment systems have already made an impact in the Indian market, with units installed at the production facilities of many of the leading commercial vehicle manufacturers in the country like Daimler, Volvo and VECV, with more installations in the pipeline.