About us

John Bean, an international brand of Wheel Service Equipment, is a registered trade mark of Snap-on Inc, and is sold & supported in South Africa by Snap-on Africa (Pty)Ltd via a dedicated group of Authorised John Bean® Equipment Dealers.

Snap-on Equipment was recognized for the 2nd year running (2009 & 2010) TDAFA (Tyre Dealers and Fitment Association - affiliated to the RMI) as “Equipment Supplier of the Year”. This is testimony to the reliability of the John Bean™ Brand and to the back-up service offered by Snap-on Equipment South Africa with its distribution centre in Durban South Africa, and its national network of Authorised John Bean® Equipment Dealers

Pioneer in Alignment Technology
John Bean is one of the world's leading brands of garage equipment for garages, tyre shops and body repair service. The company's roots date back to a retired inventor, John Bean.

In 1904 he founded the John Bean Spray Pump Company. When the company merged with a nearby food machinery company, it became the Food Machinery & Chemical Company (FMC). In 1996 Snap-on Corporation acquired the successful automotive equipment division from FMC and renamed it John Bean, honouring the original founder and visionary inventor.

John Bean engineers continued to innovate automotive service equipment and in 1934 introduced the first dynamic wheel balancer. In 1947, John Bean launched the Visualiner which was the first optical wheel aligner in the world and quickly became the standard of the industry.

In 1987 the John Bean Signature Series model 9909 became the first alignment machine with built-in training systems for the operator.

First wheel aligner
First dynamic wheel balancer
First computerised wheel aligner
First cordless measuring heads
First built-in operator video training
First use of colour monitors
First use of CD ROM
First use of animated colour graphics
First pre-wired alignment lifts
First preventative maintenance programming
First use of 3D imaging technology for wheel aligners
First to use true 32 bit Windows alignment software
First wheel aligner in PRISM technology

After Snap-on acquired the company, John Bean kept to their mission of developing innovative technologies. Most notable were development and introduction of the 3D wheel aligners the accuracy, speed and user-friendliness of which set new standards. Finally in 2008, John Bean was the first and only to launch wheel aligners in PRISM technology which once again marked an amazing milestone in their long tradition of innovative service equipment.

It is our mission to develop new technologies and offer innovative products to our customers, increasing their productivity and profitability - as your success is our goal!