Author: Dipl.-Ing. Peter Brodt, Car expert and Vice President of the ZAK e.V. association

Dipl.-Ing. Peter Brodt, author of the report, is a car expert and the Vice President of the ZAK e.V. association that campaigns for the qualification of experts by means of certification. His long years of experience within the insurance business and as an expert of car damage make Peter Brodt the ideal individual for pointing out the dangers resulting from a profession that still is very inconsistently qualified while dealing with rapidly developing vehicle technology. Especially, since the future of the expert industry is a matter close to his heart. His credo: “Anyone who wants to keep up on the car expert market in the future will have to accept and implement changes”.

Dipl.-Ing. Peter Brodt about his first experience with the world novel CarCheck coating thickness measuring system from AUTOMATION Dr. Nix

Now, that I have analyzed the first intensive test series I ran with the CarCheck System from AUTOMATION, I was very surprised to find all those advantageous things car experts could do with it.

Here my report:

Since the manufacturer insurance industry is trying to explore new avenues of damage regulation, there are constantly less and less jobs available for me and other qualified car experts. The “wheat separates from the chaff“, because there still is no mandatory job description of a car expert. Who than is surprised to see how many experts without proper training and qualification “get left behind”?

This clearly shows how essential a specialization including the constantly developing car and measuring technology will be in this field. And this was one of the reasons for me “to get granular” on the new CarCheck coating thickness measuring system from AUTOMATION Dr. Nix, which is also available to the ZAK e.V. association, and to present it in this report.

First of all:

The CarCheck system enables experts to explore new avenues regarding documentation of proof, not only in standard opinions but also in opinions of the court and even value assessment at used-car dealers. Only state-of-the-art coating thickness measuring technology can prove hidden defects or repair work on the paint layer without leaving any doubt.

How often a loss in value is declared, explaining that no pervious damage could be detected although the car had not been inspected properly, leaving the buyer of the used-car with the damage. The new CarCheck measuring system enables body shops and experts to quickly and accurately review the car’s coating thickness.

The menu-driven CarCheck system, which was developed based on the proven and well known QNix® 1500 coating thickness gauge, forces every expert to follow a more systematic and therefore more documental procedure.

All steps can be processed using a PC, allowing for complete documentation.

Therefore, I recommend examining every car with a claim of reduction in value for constant coating thickness. Only this will ensure an accurate and objective description of the car.

This security of testing is one of the special advantages of the CarCheck system, which I want to emphasize at this point. In combination with the QNix 8500 coating thickness gauge, the new CarCheck system provides the best documentation of coating thickness with the highest expressiveness I know of.

Another advantage: the system replaces the time-consuming diagrams and charts experts had to provide manually with an objective documentation print-out of all the coating thickness measured. This saves a lot of time and money.

Also particularly important for the image of the profession: this modern technology used by experts, creates trust, convinces before court and thus improves the image of the expert in public.

As a result of my first system analysis of the CarCheck system, I can only recommend every certified expert to use such a means of proof in order to improve the quality of their opinions. Courts, insurance companies, full-service body shops, car dealers as well as used-car salesmen will in the future only be customers of those experts whose reliability and professionalism can be seen in their use of state-of-the-art measuring gauge such as the 8500 CarCheck system.  

I am certain that future specialization of car experts leading to an increasing order situation and wider areas of work will have to look like that.

Dipl.-Ing. Peter Brodt in 28.07.2010  

The world novel CarCheck coating thickness measuring system from AUTOMATION Dr. Nix is the first system to provide car experts with systematic, process-oriented coating measurement, statistics and documentation as a foundation for a continuous process control in the future.

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