CRA Repair Techniques Explored – USA
The National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) recently hosted a webinar for service technicians titled, ADAS Calibration – Do It Right and Document What You Do! The webinar was presented by Brent Johnson, Vehicle Service Group global product management for collision director, who stressed using proper procedures and materials to ensure accurate calibrations are performed for your customers.
Why Calibration
“All vehicles are calibrated in the factory using static calibration methods,” said Johnson. “But ADAS needs a real world reference. This means the system needs to know what to consider a threat and what it can ignore.”
He used an example of teaching someone how to drive. “They need to know if a vehicle coming across its path is a threat, or even a road sign because it has to protect you from certain dangers,” Johnson said.
He also noted that artificial intelligence systems learn on its own, but it “takes a while to understand and learn.” “If you’ve calibrated the system and return it to a customer, they are going to expect their vehicle to be what they’re use to,” said Johnson. “But it can take a while before the system to relearn the driver’s preferences after a collision, so you need to calibrate the vehicle so that it responds as the driver expects it to respond.”
Data to Keep
Throughout the webinar Johnson stressed the importance of keeping calibration records and why each auto glass repair and replacement business should do the same. He noted the five W method from Dan Risley, vice president of quality repair and market development.
- Who performed the vehicle repairs? You should identify the technician who performed the scanning and calibrations.
- What repairs were completed? You should capture images of the work performed throughout the repair process and document quality control procedures.
- When were the repairs completed? You should document when or if the pre-and-post repair scanning was performed and document the dates and time stamps of the repair.
- Where were the repairs completed? You should identify the location of the sectioning performed and identify the welding or bonding locations.
- Why were specific repairs completed or not performed? You should document the decision-making process and include any unrelated damage that was not repaired.
However, when it comes to calibration data for industry businesses to keep Johnson mentioned the following:
- Vehicle information being repaired;
- All technician training;
- Repairs done on the vehicle;
- The types of tools used for the calibration (this includes software and the version used); and
- The procedure that was used.
Article Credit to Glass Bytes.
