Aerospace

MRO

Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) is a critical within the aviation sector as it ensures aircraft are airworthy, safe, and in optimal working condition.

MRO encompasses a wide range of activities, including routine inspections, repairs, replacements, and comprehensive overhauls of various aircraft components and systems.

Calibration is a fundamental aspect of MRO, as precise measurements are essential for maintaining the accuracy and reliability of flight-critical instruments like altimeters, pressure gauges, torque wrenches, and airspeed indicators.

Proper calibration ensures that these instruments provide exact readings, which is crucial for safe flight operations and compliance with strict aviation regulations set by authorities like the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Without regular and accurate calibration, measurement deviations could lead to incorrect data that may compromise aircraft performance and safety, making calibration a non-negotiable element of MRO in the aviation industry.

Equipment challenges

For the safety, performance, and accuracy of a range of equipment on planes, tooling used to maintain aircraft and kit to manufacture items for aerospace, calibration is essential.

Avionic instruments including altimeters, airspeed indicators, attitude indicators, heading indicators, and navigation equipment like GPS receivers and radio communication systems must be calibrated.

Engine monitoring systems with sensors and instruments that monitor engine performance, such as fuel flow meters, exhaust gas temperature probes, and engine pressure indicators, require calibration.

Altitude and air data system including pitot-static systems, which measure air pressure and velocity for altitude and airspeed calculations must be calibrated.

Aircraft weight and balance systems requires load cells and sensors that are used to determine the distribution of weight on the aircraft and these need to be very accurate.

Fuel quantity indicators and sensors require calibration to provide accurate information about the amount of fuel on board.

Instruments that monitor cabin pressure, temperature, and humidity need calibration to maintain passenger comfort and safety during flight.

The test equipment used by aircraft maintenance personnel, including pressure gauges, torque wrenches, and electronic test equipment, should be regularly calibrated to maintain their accuracy.

Any tooling, such as torque wrenches, used by aircraft manufacturers, seating manufacturers or ancillary equipment like the ovens used to keep inflight dinners warm need to be correctly calibrated to ensure accuracy.

Equipment care

Regular calibration of aircraft instruments ensures accurate readings, which are crucial for a safe and efficient flight. Monitoring systems require calibration to maintain accurate data for engine health and performance analysis.

Our current customer base sends a range of equipment into our UKAS laboratories for their calibration. They can see the status of their calibration through our dedicated tracking system (TrackRecordPro) and outcomes with certificates on the system and sent over to the nominated responsible person.

CoMech offer a collection and delivery service with our vans being on the road 5 days a week should you require logistical support. Our goods in team are very effective with accurate asset management and understand the delicacy of the equipment our airline customers send into our labs. Care is given to aircraft equipment at every stage of the calibration process.

For airline operators CoMech provide an onsite service to UKAS standard or for traceable for when the aircraft is down for it’s usual maintenance period. This ensures operators can be back flying with confidence from calibrations.

To talk to our technical team for the aviation sector drop the marketing team an email (sales@comech.co.uk) and we’ll arrange a conversation for you.