What are Snap On FOD ratchets used for?
- Thread starter tanda4
- Start date
nissan_crawler
Well-known member
Aviation, in large part. They're riveted together, rather than screwed together. It keeps screws from coming out and falling somewhere they shouldn't and turning a plane into a lawn dart.
Merkava_4
Banned
They have the screws replaced with rivets; this is so there are no screws to fall out causing Foreign Object Damage after a jet aircraft engine ***** them up (in theory). The disadvantage is that you can't do any maintenance on them because you can't remove the cover plate. The regular ratchets with the screws have a thread locking compound on them making the FOD ratchet unnecessary in my opinion.
Edit: nissan_crawler beat me to it.
Edit: nissan_crawler beat me to it.
garfunkle24
Well-known member
also for use on food/pharmaceutical production lines etc where a missing screw would also be problematic.
Senorpablo
Well-known member
FOD: Foreign object debris, or foreign object damage.
This is a big concern in the aerospace and aviation industry where something as small as a tiny loose screw could cause severe damage to a turbine engine, etc.
"FOD walks" are performed daily on aircraft carrier decks. Personnel walk shoulder to shoulder the length of the flight deck and pick up the slightest piece of anything.
This is a big concern in the aerospace and aviation industry where something as small as a tiny loose screw could cause severe damage to a turbine engine, etc.
"FOD walks" are performed daily on aircraft carrier decks. Personnel walk shoulder to shoulder the length of the flight deck and pick up the slightest piece of anything.
I take it you don't live directly under the approach to an Air Force Base that flies 50-year-old aircraft on a daily basis.
I do.
nissan_crawler
Well-known member
I take it you don't live directly under the approach to an Air Force Base that flies 50-year-old aircraft on a daily basis.
I do.
Eh...like I told the lady across the aisle from me on the last flight I was on...
I fell asleep while we were still on the taxiway in Wichita, and woke up when we hit the runway in Minneapolis. I looked over and she was staring at me with white knuckles. "How can you go to sleep like that?!?! What if something happens?" I just looked at her and said "I work on these things every day. If something happens and the pilots can't land it, there's not a damn thing I can do about it, I might as well be sleeping when we turn into a lawn dart."
I don't think that helped her insecurity much.
89MustangGX
Well-known member
We use a mostly Snappy tools at work. Maintenance doesn't seem to be an issue, because as I've tried to track them through our tool rooms by talking to people I've basically found that when they break they just get thrown out.
I think we must have some type of non-warranty agreement or something, can't imagine it would be cost effective any other way.
Adam
I think we must have some type of non-warranty agreement or something, can't imagine it would be cost effective any other way.
Adam
Merkava_4
Banned
I take it you don't live directly under the approach to an Air Force Base that flies 50-year-old aircraft on a daily basis.
I do.
I used to live right on N.A.S Miramar. I could fall a sleep easily with F18's buzzing around all over the place. When I left the service and moved back home, I couldn't sleep because it was too quiet.
davestlouis
Well-known member
I have nothing to add on the subject of FOD tools, but I grew up on the west side of Cincinnati, in line with landing patterns for Greater Cinti Airport in Northern KY, and had all sorts of big commerical planes making a ruckus overhead...didn't even notice it until I moved to STL and went back to visit my folks one weekend. Then again, I never heard gunshots and sirens all night until I moved into the dorm at St Louis U...quite the culture shock for this suburban kid.
Kevin54
MEMBER EMERITUS
Junkman
Well-known member
FoundOnRoadDead
Kevin54
MEMBER EMERITUS
No joke....We had to go thru FOD training a while back. We had some aircraft lighting come back in for repairs that had candy wrappers in them and a few had actually had M&M's in them. There has been an incident of a helicopter going down due to a mechanics socket being left inside. So foreign objects is a big deal in aerospace. I imagine a loose bolt or some such item in the space shuttle could wreck real havoc. One of the largest culprits of FOD is shavings from machining.