The reason for this article is not to glorify the OPTO-PLUS 618-DSP as the superlative wheel aligner, but simply to pin-point the important differences between computer wheel aligners on the market worldwide. This research has been requested several times from our customers - here you go.
The article will focus on computer wheel aligners of a certain standard of which we judge to be of main competition to the OPTO-PLUS 618-DSP. In order to "draw" a complete "picture" of the market situation we will start with the wheel alignment business in general. Thereafter we will make a complete analysis of the products, that is differences in features and technology applied to perform. The impatient reader who has less interest in reading about the market situation is welcome to jump directly to the Product Analysis part on page 3.

In the past couple of years a lot of things has happened in the business. One important thing is the merging between and aquisitions of companies worldwide. Snap-on has aquired several wheel alignment manufacturers - today the Snap-On group consist of various companies with various brands, way of distribution, production facilities, managers, sales-people, etc.

The Snap-on Group consist of the previous independent manufacturers - Balco, FMC (John Bean), Sun - all form the US - Hofmann from Germany and GS from Italy.

Beissbarth can be symbolized as "the hot potato" in the hands of investors. Management has neglected development of the Microline 4000-series, which makes the technology a bit outdated. Today Beissbarth is part of the french Facom group - the second big group - the important question is, will Beissbarth become the monkey on the back of Facom?
Another giant step for Facom is the vertically integration of aquiring the French group AUTO-DISTRIBUTION, FOG Autolift, Tecalemit and "Zicho". The Facom group is owned by L´Oreal.

A third group is Corghi, who owns Mondolfo Ferro, Simpes Faip (HPA) among others. My knowledge to Corghi is unfortunately limited.

It is easy to see the direction the three big groups are moving in - by aquiring all types of capital equipment manufacturers - lifts, tyre-changers, wheel-balancers, roller-brake testers, etc. - and integrate vertically by buying distribution channels, they master every business segment right to the end-user. The strategy was very well known in beginning of the 1980'ies. The well known paradigm from the 1990´ies of focusing on your core business has not been taken into consideration. E.g. Facom has wide spread activities - from business in furnitures to the automotive business - the capital equipment side of Facoms´ automotive business is still a non-profitable business.

Merging and aquisitions are often followed by cost-reductions or more popular rationalizations! Until today there has been no rationalizations on the product side, that is, no products has been demolished within these two groups. During the Automechanica exhibition in 1998 it was obvious that all the brands was the same product. One can question, will this product strategy stay unchanged? In fact the only parameter differentiate is the price and service.

Besides having similar products with different product names, a few manufacturers like Hofmann has their own product line - the Dynaliner products. They apply a different technology used by the three other manufacturers. What will happen with this product line in the future? Remember it takes an expensive engineering group to maintain technical service, new developments, R/D, program updates, etc. With a red numbers on the bottom line, these groups have only one way to go - rationalisations, meaning standardize products, less products.

Hunter is perceived as the pioneer in wheel alignment. Hunter is still a private company, but for how long? Rumors in the market reveil that it is for sale? What will then happen to Hunter? Will they maintain their innovative strategy? What about the legal fight between Hunter and Snap-On?

In the following a comparison of the competiting computer wheel aligners will be described. The description is divided into sections - each section is describing a feature and the differences between the technology used in each wheel aligner.

The products mentioned described are the following:

Electronic turntable
 
OPTO-PLUS is delivered with turntables as a standard. Standard is a 20 degree casterswing and max. turning angle. OPTO-PLUS can be delivered with a digital turntable that takes no calibration and offers a higher accuracy.
 
HPA and Beissbarth also deliver with electronic turntables as standard.
 
Hunter and John Bean come with mechanical turntables as standard. If you want to have electronic turntables another 5-10% is added to the price.

Caster/King-Pin measurement
 
OPTO-PLUS can measure caster and King-pin with a 10, 14 or 20 degrees caster swing. For the sake of accuracy we recommend that caster is measured at a 20 degrees caster swing.
 
Hunter measures caster at 14 degrees as standard.
 
John Bean measures caster and king-pin at a 10 degree caster-swing - not sufficient for proper wheel alignment.

Toe system
 
Beissbarth - CCD
Some say that the CCD is sensative to sun-light.
 
Hunter - The new 411-series uses infrared. Hunter has just developed a new system with two emitters in each measuring head, which makes it possible to judge the actual distance between measuring heads.
 
OPTO-PLUS - uses an infrared system with a very high accuracy, thanks to the Digital Signal Processor. The toe system is not sensitive to light, because the DSP filters out all interference.

Cable free system
 
Beissbarth - Infrared communication system. Various tests of the infrared system has shown that the communication can be interupted if blocked. The sensors has to have eye-contact in order to communicate. The Beissbarth has the disadvantage of a drop in communication, which obligates the user to turn off the main unit to continue - major disadvantage. Another disadvantage is the communication unit (bottle shaped unit) that you have to place on the lift. The unit is then connected to the computer in the cabinet with a cable - not a 100% cable free.
 
John Bean and HPA uses infrared communication as well. Same disadvantages applies to their infrared communication system as for the Beissbarth.
 
Hunter uses radio. The radio frequency used is 2,4 GHz bandwidth. The homologated frequency in Europe is 433 MHz. We are not sure if the 2,4 GHz are homologated in Europe.
Radio is a very stabil solution.
 
OPTO-PLUS uses radio - frequency 433 Mhz. The main advantage of the OPTO-PLUS is the fast response of readings on the monitor. E.g. John Bean has a delay of app. 2 sek., which complicates the handling a lot.

Battery recharging
 
John Bean recharges the measuring heads by connecting the cables. The disadvantage is to always remember to plug-in the cables every time you have finished a measurement.
 
Beissbarth needs to take the measuring heads off the wheel clamps to recharge the measuring heads. It is major disadvantage to seperate the measuring head and the wheel clamp every time you want to recharge.
 
OPTO-PLUS and Hunter only needs to mount the unit, consisting of measuring head and wheel clamp, on the side of the machine. The workshop mechanic is used to mount the measuring head and wheel clamp together on the cabinet, therefore we have preserved this feature.

Wheel alignment specifications

Specifications are not just numbers…
 
Beissbarth provides a set database from the data-manufacturer Auto-Data. According to our experience the Auto-Data specifications are often out of line with the real specification given by the car manufacturer. In that case the machine is devalued - without the right specification an accurate and expensive equipment is useless.
 
OPTO-PLUS has direct contact to major manufacturers in the country where the individual manufacturer is situated. In that way to be on the edge of new steering geometry of cars and to procure specification of new models. This ensures correct specifications without any errors. We make a new database twice a year.
 
The database of Hunter is somewhat Americanized. You will find many irrelavant information in the database.

Encoder for automatic detection of wheel turning
 
OPTO-PLUS, Hunter and John Bean have encorporated an encoder in each measuring head to detect a turn of the wheel, which makes the run-out compensation more automatic than most equipment. It also allows the user to turn the after run-out compensation has been completed.
 
HPA does not have this feature!

Electronic level
 
OPTO-PLUS also has an electronic level in each measuring head by using the caster-pendulum.

Software
In comparison to all the the competing products to the OPTO-PLUS it is easy to operate and fast. This is an advantage to all workshops that demands high flexibility of their workers. Workers can then easily operate the OPTO-PLUS even after a one month break from wheel alignment.

Extented to test-line
 
Almost all products are PC-based and therefore very flexible in terms of connecting other equipment such as plate-brake testers to test for suspension and brakes. Hunter, OPTO-PLUS and Beissbarth all have plate brake testers to connect to a main computer.
 
HPA does not have a plate brake testers.

Additional angles
 
Practically all products with eight sensors offers additional angles, like wheel base difference, set-back on rear wheels, etc.

Automatic test of toe-sensors
 
The OPTO-PLUS, Hunter, John Bean and Beissbarth all test the toe-sensor system automatically by adding all angles around the car (square) to match the 360 degrees.

Windows-version
 
To have a windows version on your wheel aligner, does not give an added value. Only if you want to connect your wheel aligner to a network and exchange information with other network computers. The Bosch network and ASA-network has developed a concept that is about to be implemented, therefore in the future it is interesting with a common interface brought by Windows.
 
OPTO-PLUS is lagging behind, but a Windows version is on its way.
 
Hunter, John Bean and HPA already have a Windows version.

Price/Quality ratio ( in regards to functionality)

Hunter has a very high quality, but also a very high price.
 
OPTO-PLUS has the best price/quality ratio. Please take a look at the Price/Quality chart.

OPTOE (equivalent to win-toe from Hunter)
 
Hunter has the WinToe system which is system that allows the user to adjust Toe in a non-straight ahead position. Hunter is very good at market the concept, even though that there is no big challenge in making it. We have already made it.

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