Aircraft hydraulic/pneumatic fitting removal tool | block machine,brick ...

Aircraft hydraulic/pneumatic fitting removal tool and related method of use for disengaging the locking collars of such fittings. In a particular embodiment, the fitting removal tool has a right cylindrical housing having a first and second end. Proximate to the second end is an internal circumferential pocket.

From flight control systems such as flaps and ailerons to engine systems such as thrust reversers and safety systems such as door latches, hydraulic/pneumatic systems have proven highly reliable and generally superior to other systems. It is therefore not surprising that a modem commercial aircraft may have many miles of hydraulic pathways.

During operation, an aircraft may be subject to a number of vibration forces. In some instances these vibrations may be sufficient to loosen fittings. To combat this loosening tendency, fittings have been developed with locking systems intended to keep them in place and resist loosening over time, whether due to vibration or other stresses.

The removal tool provides a seat structured and arranged to seat against the open end of the fitting; a housing structured and arranged to house the seat; an adjustable actuator structured and arranged to laterally actuating the seat within the housing; a swivel structured and arranged to maintaining the seat in a given orientation; and an attacher integral to the housing, the attacher structured and arranged to attach the housing to the locking collar of the fitting.

In yet another embodiment, the invention may provide a method of retracting the locking collar of an open ended hydraulic/pneumatic fitting using a removal tool. The removal tool is characterized by a cylindrical housing having a first end, a second end, a partially exposed internal channel concentric to the longitudinal axis, a pocket transverse to the longitudinal axis and proximate to the housing second, an adjustable actuator extending through the first end into the internal channel and joined to a swivel seat disposed and laterally actuated within the internal channel.

Actuating the adjustable actuator in a second direction advances the swivel seat to engage the open end of the fitting. Force is then applied by driving the adjustable actuator in the second direction, the force through the base providing a lateral motion of the cylindrical housing relative to the swivel seat engaging the open end of the fitting.