By the time Ford F-150 comprising of an aluminium body hits dealerships in fourth quarter, thousands of insurance estimators, collision repair technicians, Ford field staffers and many other staffs will have to attend the biggest industry training programs.
F-150 is the biggest-selling vehicle in the United States, and Ford wants to make sure there are collision repair specialists in the team who are aware of what they are doing the first time a wrecked one is launched.
When aluminum is broken or bent, it behaves in a different manner than steel. F- 150 is ensuring they have repair shops where different tools will be able perform some aluminum structural repairs. Ford strongly recommends the setting up of separate areas so that they can work on the metal because of issues related to steel-aluminum contamination.
I-CAR, (the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair) in Hoffman Estates, Ill., a nonprofit organization that trains and certifies repair technicians, will administer the training in conjunction with Ford. The automaker will cover the cost of training for one technician per dealership. Dealerships that require more than one trained technician will pay additional training expense.
I-CAR is mobilizing a staff comprising of 200 instructors, who went through a similar training program before they became instructors.
"It's definitely a big undertaking, but it will not stress our capability," said Jason Bartanen, I-CAR's director of industry technical relations, "We've been preparing for this a couple of years"
He added I-CAR has done training for Audi and Jaguar, that offers aluminum-body models, albeit in low volumes. I-CAR also made a program for about 2,000 Chevrolet dealers for 2006 Corvette Z06.
Depending on how much experienced a technician is, training costs will vary. I-CAR says the 2-day course will cost a bit less than $1,000 per individual. The course will be in two parts: a general session on techniques on aluminium repair and a session specific to F-150.
"The Corvette training was released [between] 6 and 12 months after the release of Z06, is when we finally had a course available," he said. "For the F-150, we're going to have thousands of technicians available when that first vehicle pulls off the lot. That's a first for I-CAR, and I'm pretty proud of that."
Among the training requirements a weld test would be included in which technicians will be asked to perform six welds from 2 different positions. I-CAR welding experts will visit dealerships and repair shops to ensure they have acquired proper aluminum-handling equipment, and it is installed properly, Bartanen said. The equipment will include items as rivet guns, metal inert gas welders and vacuums for picking up aluminum dust.
Ford has said the dealership collision repair technicians can start the classes in May while independent repair shops can start their classes in June.
It is not the technicians who need a better understanding of aluminum repair process. Insurance adjustors require education, too. Said Bartanen: "This training will be open to the insurance industry so insurance adjusters will know what to do and can write more accurate damage assessments in the field."
