As required by AMC 145.A.40 (b), the maintenance organisation shall ensure that “all tools, equipment and particularly test equipment, as appropriate, are controlled and calibrated according to an officially recognized standard at a frequency to ensure serviceability and accuracy”.
In order to comply with this requirement, the maintenance organisation shall, for any tooling in use, identify the related inspection/service/calibration needs.
This “tooling inspection/service/calibration need evaluation” must be carried out at any application for initial or extension of an EASA Part-145 approval or each time a certain type of tooling (P/N) is entering the maintenance organisation for the first time.
This includes tooling that are infrequently used and leased or loaned by the maintenance organisation in order to ensure their availability at the time the maintenance is to be performed.
This will allow the maintenance organisation to ensure / demonstrate that the need of inspection, service and calibration for the tooling required to perform the intended scope of work has been considered.
Within the store we will typically have 2 types of tooling:
Standard tooling – non-specific and commercially available
Task specific tooling – typically identified within maintenance data in respect of Aircraft / Engine / Component / NDT / etc.
It is the responsibility of the end user (Competence related pre-requisite) to ensure the correct standard tool or equipment item is selected in respect of each specific task.
Note that for a given standard tool it is possible for the maintenance organisation to decide to implement an equivalent tool to meet a particular requirement.
When dealing with a “task specific tooling”, the maintenance organisation may proceed according to primary or alternate tooling specified in the maintenance data
Or may use alternate tooling when an approved process in place (Only when this possibility is given in the maintenance data)
Or when approved data is available (may be the applicable TCH, STCH, OEM or the tool manufacturer which is specified in the maintenance data of the product or component being maintained).
In the case that no technical documentation is available engineering judgement using a risk based assessment may be used on a case by case basis.
Tooling management criteria
The main driver for establishing in which group a certain tooling should be entered depends on the applicable requirements defining the serviceability. The tooling control processes are typically classified in the following groups having different control requirements in order to establish serviceability:
On Condition – Tooling which requires a visual inspection prior to each use.
Service – Tooling which usually requires a visual inspection prior to each use or servicing at established frequency.
Calibration – A visual inspection prior to each use, and calibration at established frequency and, when applicable, servicing. (This information is normally given by the tooling manufacturer instructions, when published)
Note – In the absence of such data, it is the responsibility of the maintenance organisation to retrieve the necessary documentation (i.e. by the tooling manufacturer, a calibration agency, etc.).
Typical Tooling Control Management System consists of:
a) Incoming inspection
b) Control register
c) Identification (labelling system)
d) Ongoing serviceability monitoring process
