CEG is the acronym for the Collision Equipment Group, started in early 2003 by 15 of the nations top Collision Equipment Distributors. Altra Products was one of the founding members of CEG and has been an active member from day one. We found that the need had arisen for a forward thinking, cooperative organization to help shops maintain their productivity and profitability. With more than 300 years of combined experience and a focus on the customers needs, the people of CEG have placed their top efforts on making sure that the customer gets the best in products and services.
The primary customer is the collision repair market; automotive repair shops of every shape and size. We sell the equipment that is needed to be competitive and productive in today’s market. CEG has some of their own branded equipment plus the experience to know which of the existing brands have time-tested, field-proven equipment that deserve being included in their catalog.
For a free catalog call us at 1-800-684-3154 or email sales@altraproducts.com
CEG was formed from the idea that the customer deserves the very best deal possible and the very best service possible, Period.
Altra Products Supply Inc. sells Garmat USA© Spray booths. The Garmat spray booth is made entirely in Englewood, Colorado, USA. They have a proven record of building top quality booths that serve shops with dependability and durability.
We at Altra Products have factory trained technicians that know how to install and service these booths, and many other brands as well. Take a look at the Garmat USA booths we offer.
To make better profits, of course. You get paid to paint a repair, you do not get paid to buff or re-do a job done poorly. A booth will help your technician turn out flawless work that customers will love. Quality work and happy customers are a sure-bet formula for success. A booth will not make your tech a painter, any more than a good pen would make you a poet. But, put a good painter in a good booth and watch the magic happen!
Absolutely! Health and Safety, compliance with the new EPA 6H rules, and better production. By having proper airflow and safety interlocks the painter and all the personnel in the area are much safer from the nastiness of VOCs and isocyanates. By ensuring proper airflow you not only help the painter achieve good work, but also help keep him/her safe from the accumulation of poisons in their bodies. A properly designed booth and a supply of breathable air to the painter will just about guarantee safety from the hazards of toxic fumes.
You would think that fresh air from outside would be considered “breathable air” but in reality it doesn’t satisfy the codes. The air from outside can still contain a small portion of the harmful things that monitored air will filter out. With a Breathable Air Monitor an alarm will sound to alert you of “bad air”. Properly filtered and monitored air can supply a painter or a technician in a dangerous environment with safe and dependable breathable air, thus ensuring their safety in a hazardous environment. You owe it to the technician to guarantee that their safety is as good as possible.
Metal Inert Gas. The actual classification for the MIG welders is Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW). The welding puddle is kept in an oxygen-free bubble of gas as it cools, keeping the weld strong and clean. MIG welders can use a variety of wire types and wire sizes as well as a variety of shielding gasses. These welders are probably the most productive and versatile welders available for the shop environment.
Too many factors to answer in on paragraph, but basically: The wire feed speed; wire type, wire size, and amperage range are selected based on the thickness and type of metal to be welded. The shielding gas is adjusted to provide an inert bubble of gas above the weld. The type of gas varies with the type of metals welded. The controls are set; a test weld is done to check settings, and then once satisfied with the settings, production welding can be done. Some welders have an additional feature called synergic welding.
Synergic welders take advantage of the power of electronics processing. They constantly “listen” to the feedback information from the welder and make small, fast, automatic adjustments to the welder. The electronic processor takes input from the power supply, the wire amperage setting, the wire speed setting, the temperature of the welder, the cables, even the heating of the work piece. The electronics then make adjustments to automatically compensate for the changes.
The classification for spot welders is Squeeze Type Resistance Spot Welding (STRSW). The first part is Squeeze; the tips are closed with very high pressure on the layers of metal to be welded. After the pieces are tightly clamped in the electrodes a welding current is applied, fusing the metal in a very small “spot”. The electrodes are held in the clamped position for a fraction of time to allow cooling and finishing of the weld, then they release. By moving the spot welder along a seam the steel is stitched together very effectively. These welds are very strong, with very little heating outside of the weld area. Even repairs to Boron Steel are possible with the more powerful units.
Electro-galvanizing and primed parts are not destroyed with this welding process. There is far less heat generated with a spot welder than any other type of welding process. All of the welding heat is focused onto the single “spot” being welded. All welding requires careful preparation and STRSW is no different. There are published guidelines from almost every vehicle manufacturer as to setup and procedure for using spot welders. The STRSW type welding is accepted as the proper repair process by almost every vehicle manufacturer.
Yes, some manufacturers have perfected the electronics that “listen” to all of the feedback and make adjustments in time and amperage to maintain the original desired settings. Your last weld will be as perfect as your first weld if you use a spot welder with active electronics.
Maybe you do, and maybe you don’t. You certainly don’t need a frame rack if you never intend on working on hard-hit repairs. Larger shops want to be able to repair any job that comes their way and a frame rack is a necessary tool for that task. Many smaller shops will send out the heavy repair work and only do the lighter pulling that can be done with a floor post and a floor pot system. Either way you look at it though you do need some ability to hold and pull on a vehicle to make a good and profitable repair.
It is a really neat work platform that can go from flat on the floor (3” high), up to 36” (no more bending over). The light-duty rack allows for clamping and holding the vehicle for the repair process, and a portable pulling arm that uses vector pulling for fast and efficient repairs right in your work stall.
You are responsible as a repair facility to return the vehicle to a pre-crash condition. The only way that you can assure that the repair is correct is by careful measurements. There are many ways to measure all the points on a vehicle that relate to the particular repair. Most electronic measuring devices also provide documentation for a before-and-after comparison. There are a few three axis electronic measuring devices that have very accurate measuring capabilities.
The biggest difference is that some are three axis electronic measurement systems, using electronics and input to determine all three axis of every point, and other systems are a two axis electronic and one axis mechanical system (i.e. hanging targets). A few of the hanging target type even demand that the vehicle is perfectly level and the target perfectly plumb to measure properly. All of them need to have good documentation for the “before and after”, based on their ability to measure each point.