Control of tools

Tool control is vital to flight safety and also good practice for the aircraft maintenance engineer.
There are several models and systems related to tool control, each company adopts a model but
all need to have good confidence and quality in these procedures, in other words, all tools
(100%) must be accounted for before aircraft release.
The main responsible is the person who will perform a task on the aircraft, before starting the
job, the engineer must check if the tools are in good condition, if the calibration of the special
tools is valid. Prior usage of the tool all parts that complete the tool as whole should be included
in the tool box and toolbox properly stored on designated place in tool store. If there is any
problem, the tool must be identified and delivered to the sector responsible for the correction
(calibration, repair, or exchange) as soon as possible.
Tools must always be identified. Personal tools must contain information from the technician
who owns them, and special or general tools must have an identification code made by the
company that owns them, this maintains traceability and it can be viewed in the system when it
was removed, when it was returned, in which aircraft and by whom the tool was used. The data
of the special tools must always be inserted in the work order, such as the tool identification
number and the due date of the calibration.
There are several types of tool controls, nowadays some companies adopt computerised systems
where the engineer identifies himself, insert the work order number and selects the tool, this is
automatically registered in the system and the tool is delivered to the employee, in any moment a
tool can be tracked by dates, job done and which aircraft. This is important for traceability of the
tool as a faulty tool could reflect on previously done maintenance. There are also classic
procedures, such as the shadow board and tool tags, where each tool has its silhouette on the tool
board and each technician has an identification token such as a numbered tag for example. When
the tool is received a tag is placed in the shadow board, so the tool can be tracked,
No matter where tools are being used, it is the responsibility of each technician to keep track of
all the tools used during a task. The most important check of all is the final, 'end of work' tool
check, when all tools must be collected and checked off against personal inventories, ensuring all
borrowed are returned and any personal tool tags collected.