Posted on 01/08/2024 1:23:14 PM PST by janetjanet998
Update: United Airlines confirm inspections have found loose bolts on the 737 MAX 9
“Since we began preliminary inspections on Saturday, we have found instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug – for example, bolts that needed additional tightening.”
Another
BREAKING: Alaska Air, in a news report fourteen minutes ago, has said that its technicians found loose bolts on their Boeing, $BA, 737 Max 9s
Y.E.S.!!!! Every bolt has to be safety wired to prevent backout.
Aren’t critical fasteners supposed to be checked by a QA inspector with a second torque (audit) wrench ?
AVIATION PING!.....................
BOEING! BOEING! BONG!.......................
True Story:
A company I used to work for back in the 80’s and 90’s, was a major subcontractor to Martin-Marietta for the VLS Missile Launch System for the Navy’s new destroyers.
I was the PMEL Calibration supervisor.
One of the subassemblies was a large metal door that had about 50 or so fuseholders on it. These were very expensive, about $100 each, waterproof sealed fuseholders that held large fuses about the size of your index finger.
One day they started having a large number of cracked fuseholders for some odd reason, about half of them on each panel.
The first suspect was the torque wrench that was used to install the retaining nuts.
The Quality Engineer and Mechanical Engineer brought the tool to the Calibration Lab and I put it on the Torque Tester Machine. It was perfect. The QAE was rather perplexed and dubious of the machine, but took the wrench back to the Production Line and they decided witness the installation of the fuse holders on a new panel.
The assembler, a young girl, took the wrench and proceeded to install the fuse holders.
She used the torque wrench to tighten the retaining nut and the wrench went ‘click’ as it was supposed to when the proper torque had been applied.
BUT to their surprise, she did not stop! She kept on tightening the nut!
When asked why she did that she replied, “I do that to all the fuse holders! It doesn’t ‘feel’ tight enough to me, so I go around a couple more times just to make sure!”
After that the toque wrench was replaced with a ‘breakover’ type that cannot be used past its preset torque limit.
Mystery solved...........................
737s are still made in Washington.
AA hires. Diversity is our strength.
This was a United plane
An assembler that can “feel” how tight a fastener should be— all specifications aside with limited torque- then goes it one more. Thus exceeding stress specification of the design and voila’! The fuse holders break in normal vibration or worse, in combat.
It turned out that nobody had trained her in the proper use of the torque wrench. She just thought that no matter what she did the torque wrench would automatically apply the proper ‘torque’, whatever that is.
She was not reprimanded, just ‘retrained’..............
“United Airlines confirm inspections have found loose bolts on the 737 MAX 9”
Tight nuts are happy nuts.
“AA” = Affirmative Action.
“Affirmative Action (AA) Affirmative action is a policy or practice set forth by an employer that aims to counter the effects of past and present discrimination in the employment context.”
Ha Ha got cha
I was wondering ... ;)
yes, QA od supposed to inspect everything, but if the bolts are wired, no, unless the bolts are wired backwards.
Is there some rule for commerical aircraft of when bolts have to be safety wired vs thread locker or lock washers or just a torque audit ?
For cars, the last application I can remember is 80’s Jaguars where the brake caliper bolts were safety wired.
This!
What’s really amazing is 2 quality inspectors review all work.
You have it backwards. Boing bought McDonald Douglas.
I don’t have anything backwards, I am fully aware that Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas. My point is that McDonnell Douglas was full of bean counters who ruined Boeing. Boeing was an engineering firm focused on quality. McDonnell Douglas was full of bean counters focused on the bottom line. McDonnell Douglas ruined Boeing, just as I said.
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