Tool Control for Aerospace

Delivering solutions that deliver FOD/Tool Control improvements is our passion. Whilst everyone recognises the importance of tool control within the Aerospace industry, Coplan have always seen it as our job to help enhance and develop solutions where possible.

Foreign objects will always be difficult to monitor but ensuring that all tools are accounted for and not misplaced goes a long way to helping organisations with their compliance.

We love working with clients to enhance FOD/Tool control processes and have successfully helped to deliver:

Visual Tool Control (VTC) solutions that easily identify tools not returned
Mobile FOD tool control bags housing all required tools for off-site maintenance
Electronic solutions to restrict access of tools to authorised, trained users only
Electronic audits demonstrating controlled access and FOD reports
Automated tool calibration control

Visual Tool Control – VTC

VTC provides Engineers with an instant visible audit that all tools are present or more importantly which tools are still to be returned.

Our solutions use a robust, multi-coloured foam (usually black on top of a colour) which is then precision cut to suit the requirements of the tools to be stored within a secure tool cabinet.

Coplan adopt a 3-Phase precision tool ‘profiling’ process resulting in a 2D CAD layout profile. The precision within the profiling process ensures that the spaces cut will only accommodate the tool they are designed to take. As a result, visual audits are not compromised with the wrong tool being replaced in the wrong location.

Our team work with our clients to ensure that any tool layout design not only works from a VTC standpoint but we also consider tool arrangement based on handling and spacing, frequency of tool use, storage requirements

The ID tagging within the foam also helps to ensure that tools are returned correctly.

Tool control… your control

Tool Access Control

Controlling and auditing the access to tools is an important process that all organisations should follow during a build and manufacturing process. The implications of missing or lost tools can be severe and traditional methods such as manual sign-out sheets can be flawed and difficult to manage.

Coplan have delivered access solutions to clients that automate the access to tools whilst also recording the issue and receipt. Not only does this help our customers with the compliance around recording access but it also provides many efficiencies: removing the requirement for paper-based reports, reducing downtime and removing the need for personnel to manage the process.

The solutions we offer can:
• Restrict access to certain tool kits/boxes to only authorised personnel on a kit by kit basis
• Provide instant audits to log who has accessed which tool kit(s) and when
• Restrict further access to tool kits in instances where all tools are not confirmed as replaced
• Restrict access to tools that are not within their calibration allowance
• Provide custom reports and alerts to Senior staff

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Tool Personalisation

The importance of ensuring that tools are returned to their correct location has meant that we need to consider how we might identify individual tools so that Engineers and Operators can know where to replace them Many clients have their preferred marking requirement, but our team work closely to determine the correct solution. Previous marking solutions have included Laser etching and colour coding a via specialist ‘heat-shrink’ process. We also can offer ID tagging within our foaming solutions to aide in the correct return of tools.