SEMA: Bartec shows new all-in-one inspection tool

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It’s Bartec’s all-in-one tread depth, tire pressure and TPMS tool that allows your whole front-of-shop operation to be completed with one tool.

The new Tech200Pro handheld inspection tool was on show at SEMA in Las Vegas last week, impressing tire dealers with its simplicity and speed — allowing all four tires to be inspected in two minutes.

Colin Webb, of Bartec USA, said: “What this does is it maximizes the chance of the tire shop to find faults with the tires, and to get the customer’s car into the shop.
Maximize the chance of finding faults

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“It’s a simple handheld device. You’ve got a plunger on the front to take the tread depth, a hose piece at the bottom to take the direct pressure – capabilities in case direct sensors are fitted – and inside the tool, coils to read the TMPS data automatically from the sensors. That data then goes to a package, which we supply free-of-charge, called TPMS Desktop which displays the results in a format you can put in front of the customer.”

Webb said tire dealers and technicians could then show customers the data on an iPad or Android tablet, giving credibility to whatever recommendations they are making about the service requirements.
Bartec Inset

Bartec Tech200Pro in action

The system also has a “traffic light” presentation to clearly show the technician — and customers — whether their tires need changing immediately, in the near future, or are OK for quite some time.

“It enables a completely honest and transparent dialogue between the tire shop and the customer,” Webb said.

“The speed and the ability to automatically transfer the data to the back-office system is great for dealers.
More credibility with customers

“It can also be used to capture the customer’s details, including their estimated annual mileage. So we have a very accurate tread depth — more accurate than the drive-over systems or the laser systems. When the tread depth is correlated with the estimated annual mileage, that gives the ability for the shop to be able to say to the customer ‘come back in five weeks or two months, or whatever’.”

The Bartec Tech200Pro is available from second quarter, 2017.