Company Name: Thatcham Motor Centre

Material: Aluminium & Steel
Process: MIG Brazing & MIG/MAG

Component welded:
Aluminum car panels from: Land Rover, Audi A2 & A8, and other Aluminum vehicles.
MIG Brazing of galvanised steel panels: Vauxhall Vecta C & future Vauxhall (GM) vehicles.


Initial contact and short description:
A world-leading automotive research and technology centre that provides the automotive and motor insurance industries with valuable commercial information through research and development, consultancy, training and publishing services.

Established by the British insurance industry in 1969 as the Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre, Thatcham has an international reputation as a centre of excellence. Traditionally an independent, non-profit making accident repair research centre, Thatcham is a world leader in vehicle security testing, safety research on whiplash, and a leading trainer provider in Europe forthe body repair industry.

A founder member of The Research Council for Automobile Repairs (RCAR), an international body of Insurance sponsored repair research centres, of which there are currently 24 in 17 countries.

Jointly owned by members of the ABI (Association of British Insurers) and LMUA (LLoyd’s Motor Underwriters Association), Thatcham is partly funded by a levy on these member insurance companies. All UK motor insurers contribute to and benefit from Thatcham’s work.The training centre works to raise standards through the automotive & insurance industries.

Solution:
For repairing the Aluminium Audi cars, the customer was told by Audi to use competitors e-quipment. After completing the Audi training course in Neckersulm, with one week on Aluminum welding (both Fronius and competitors power sources were used) the final test was made with the TPS 2700 Alu-Edition. This was due to the ease of use for the operator.

After many attempts with the competitors equipment, the weld was not very satisfactory, but the 1st weld with the Fronius was a dramatic improvement!
The Alu-Edition was demonstrated on some Aluminum plate before Aluminium body panels from various vehicles were welded (including 1.2mm butt welds with gaps!).
The Synchropulse and the precision pulse at low power enabled superb results with no burn-through or spatter with both Aluminum (AlSi5) & Copper/Silicone (CuSi3) wires.
An added advantage was the AlSi12 program which comes as standard in the Alu-Edition for Audi models.

Used products:
AL 4000
3pcs TransPuls Synergic 2700 AluEdition