Keeping Up with Aviation


Tools By Mark Robins


ammers are one of the oldest human tools known to man. Stones attached to sticks with strips of leather or animal sinew were being used as hammers by about 30,000 BCE during the middle of the Paleolithic Stone Age. Many millennium later, in today’s aviation maintenance arena, dead blow hammers and plastic tip hammers are still being used -- along with a plethora of many other aviation tools — by engineering professionals to service, repair, overhaul and maintain diverse aircraft. Aviation maintenance tools include drills, drives, adapter sets, cable pull testers,


box wrenches, socket sets, tie guns, crimpers, universal positioners, infrared thermometers, metal cutting fluids, blind riveters, tensioners and many others. Used by aircraft engineers to ensure an aircraft’s structural soundness, many specialized tools are available to check fixtures and perform repairs on structures, components and equipment. Some are so simple they can be found in a home toolbox; others are unique to aircraft maintenance.


Every aviation maintenance tool has a specific purpose and innovative companies are always looking for ways to advance its usefulness.


Advances, ergonomics, change Clearly, the right tools in the hands of trained aircraft engineers will significantly reduce downtime and costs. While change is always constant, even in the aviation maintenance tool arena, a hammer’s main function in the Stone Age isn’t that different from its function in a hangar. So how and why are companies creating new advances in tools? “Tools are the key to efficient and effective maintenance of jet engines,” says Tim Meyers, customer technical training leader, Evendale, Ohio. “Applying new technologies, as well as user input for improvement, are key for customer


32 Aviation Maintenance | avm-mag.com | May 2013


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