ACOFAS held its 22nd Technician Training Clinic on Aug. 25 and 26, hosted by Bee Line Company. The clinic was held at the Bee Line Training Center in Bettendorf, Iowa. Training was conducted by Howard Williams, training and field applications manager, and Paul Lund, Bee Line training expert. In order to afford all technicians the opportunity to experience excellent training instruction and more importantly, on-hands participation working with the equipment, the number of technicians allowed to attend was limited. The Bee Line facilities provided the perfect venue to allow Williams to oversee each technician’s work on the equipment.
Technicians traveled from across the United States to attend. The focus of the training was frame gauge maintenance, calibration and use. All of the technicians participated in: gauging a truck frame, placement and reading the gauges; assembling and placement of push, pull and hold fixtures; as well as actually straightening a frame, concentrating on when is enough push ‘enough’ and how to avoid over-correction.
Bee Line Company is the premier manufacturer and provider of heavy duty truck frame and alignment equipment. The technicians watched a demonstration by Bee Line engineers of a new “real time” electronic gauging system for truck and trailer frames. This Bee Line product is still in the development stage, however, the company hopes to have this revolutionary product released to the market in the near future.
ACOFAS is the American Council of Frame and Alignment Specialists. ACOFAS conducts training programs two times annually at either member, vendor, or manufacturer locations. These programs provide educational opportunities for the technicians of aftermarket service providers. Past programs have concentrated on DOT, DOL, CSA regulations, electronic diagnostics, computer diagnostics, ABS function and operation, suspension maintenance and many more.
The next ACOFAS clinic will be held on Nov. 17 and 18 at Hendrickson Auxiliary Axle, Hebron, Ohio. This program will focus on: king pin replacement, auxiliary axle maintenance, trouble shooting, specification procedures and manufacturing. Additional information regarding this upcoming clinic will be forthcoming shortly.
For information regarding ACOFAS membership or training programs please visit the ACOFAS web-site: www.acofas.com or contact Gordon Botts: [email protected].
