Since 3D automotive four-wheel aligners entered China, they have become popular throughout the country in just two or three years. This type of product has been widely recognized by users for its advantages such as high measurement efficiency, low failure rate, and high-tech elements. It has been adopted by more and more users in China's automobile maintenance industry and is on the verge of replacing traditional laser and CCD four-wheel aligners.
At the just-concluded Beijing International Auto Maintenance Exhibition, almost all traditional four-wheel aligner manufacturers, whether they produce on their own or use OEM, are unwilling to fall behind and have launched their own 3D products one after another. The person in charge of a well-known domestic manufacturer claims that 3D aligners sold last year accounted for two-thirds of the total sales volume of aligners of this enterprise, and there is already an intention to gradually abandon the original traditional products.
However, under such a prosperous market situation for production and sales, what is the technical and quality status of the products? Do consumers really know the technical performance of the products and choose products that satisfy them? After all, 3D four-wheel aligner technology is a brand-new product full of modern high technology. It has not been long since it entered the domestic market. Behind the market prosperity, in fact, there are many little-known technical inside stories that are not truly understood by users or even production peers. In order to promote the technological progress of domestic products, keep up with the advanced foreign technologies, and promote the long-term stable, healthy and orderly development of industry products, it is obviously very necessary to publicize and popularize relevant knowledge.
3D four-wheel aligner products
At present, there are as many as three or forty domestic 3D aligner manufacturers. Although they all claim that their products are real 3D aligners, few manufacturers truly master the core technology. Most of them just imitate foreign early products, and their technology is relatively backward. There is still a big gap compared with similar products in developed foreign countries. If classified according to the production years and technological progress of foreign products, it can be said that domestic products are still only at a certain level.
The main sign of this generation of products is its core component, the industrial camera. This 3D four-wheel aligner must take static pictures at a specified position. The process of measuring by pushing the cart must be carried out as follows:
When the vehicle is stationary, take a continuous picture of the target for more than 3 seconds.
Push the cart backward for a certain distance.
When the vehicle is stationary, take a continuous picture of the target for more than 3 seconds for the second time.
Push the cart forward to let the vehicle return to its original position.
Calculate two spatial coordinate points on the target's motion trajectory through two static pictures. Then, use these two points to fit the target's motion curve according to the theoretical curve and use this to calculate the relevant parameters for vehicle tire positioning. The advantage of this method is that it has low hardware requirements for cameras and microcomputers, simple software calculation, and low production cost. But the disadvantages are also very obvious. Since it only uses two points to fit the motion curve and uses the fitted curve as the real motion curve of the target, it is inevitably based on a series of assumptions, such as:
The entire pushing process is carried out in an ideal vehicle body plane.
There is no slithering or sliding during the entire pushing process.
The two static shooting points must be accurate and the vehicle does not shake.
If the above assumptions cannot be fully established, the coincidence between the theoretical curve and the actual motion curve will be poor, inevitably bringing large errors, poor repeatability, and even measurement failure. As can be seen from the above introduction, the 3D aligner vigorously promoted by domestic manufacturers is actually only taking pictures at two static positions and has not yet achieved dynamic measurement. It can only be regarded as a primary and simple 3D product. As for how much the "real" degree of the real 3D that is repeatedly emphasized in the industry is, it is worth discussing.
Second-generation 3D four-wheel aligner
After more than ten years of technological development and accumulation, the main features of the new platinum edition product are:
The camera pixel is greatly increased to 5 million. The advantage is that the image is much clearer. A single picture can be used for calculation instead of fitting by taking many pictures continuously at a certain position. In this way, pictures taken dynamically can be used for parameter calculation.
There is a frame buffer in the camera. Each picture can be stored in a single storage page and can be completely transmitted to the computer. Based on this technology, the continuously taken pictures of the target during its movement process will not be distorted when transmitted to the computer. A series of points on the target's motion trajectory can be calculated with this. Naturally, the curve fitted by dozens of points is much more accurate than the curve fitted by only two points. Moreover, individual points that are shaken and obviously deviate from the normal track can be effectively eliminated. This greatly improves the measurement accuracy, has good repeatability, and is much more efficient and has a higher measurement success rate.
