INTERTEST CUSTOM ENGINEERING SOLUTION
SPOOL SUPPORT FIXTURES
FOR CART & FREE
STANDING WEBVIEWERS®
Turnkey fixture support for high-value engine components
At a Glance
CHALLENGE
What needed to be overcome?
- A secure repeatable way to hold spools steady during inspection
- The burden of customers designing and building their own fixtures
- Engineering time and manufacturing resources spent on one-off builds
DEVELOPMENT
What needed to be designed?
- A mature field-proven fixture design refined from prior builds
- Reproducible hardware manufactured reliably at a reasonable cost
- A fixture configured to integrate directly with FSWV platforms
SOLUTION
What was the end product?
- A ready-made spool support fixture for FSWV and Cart-mounted WebViewers®
- A turnkey option that replaces customer built support fixtures
- A fixture now deployed across multiple MRO and OEM facilities
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THE CHALLENGE
Aircraft engine MRO and OEM operations require a secure way to hold a spool or drum in place during inspection. Many customers have historically designed and built their own support fixtures for this task, an approach that consumes internal engineering time and manufacturing resources better spent elsewhere. Without a ready-made option, teams using the Free Standing WebViewer® FSWV or Cart-mounted FSWV faced the added step of engineering a compatible fixture before inspection work could begin.
Building a fixture in-house is a workable approach, but it is not always the most effective use of resources. Customers repeatedly found that a proven, purpose-built fixture was a better fit than starting from scratch, particularly when a turnkey solution for engine spool and drum inspection was the priority.
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DEVELOPMENT & INNOVATION
InterTest engineered the spool support fixture as a mature, field-informed design, drawing on prior build experience and observation of other support solutions already in use. Rather than starting from a blank sheet, the engineering team applied a copy, innovate, and iterate approach: taking what worked well in the field and refining it into a reproducible, cost-effective fixture.
Development focused on manufacturing repeatability and cost rather than solving a novel engineering problem, since a dedicated fixture is already a standard and effective way to meet the requirement. InterTest applied the same feedback-driven refinement process used across its custom fixture work, an approach also reflected in related projects such as centering spiders for pipe inspection spplicatoins and shaft support fixtures.
The project demonstrated InterTest's ability to translate field-proven fixture designs into reproducible, cost-effective hardware while supporting the varied mechanical support needs of aircraft engine MRO and OEM customers.
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THE SOLUTION
The result is a ready-made spool support fixture designed for use with the WebViewers® during aircraft engine spool and drum inspection. Instead of designing and building a custom fixture from scratch, customers can adopt a proven solution that supports faster setup and frees internal engineering resources for other priorities. The fixture is deployed across multiple aircraft engine MRO and OEM facilities, supporting inspection workflows without added in-house design work.
By offering a proven, ready-to-integrate spool support fixture, InterTest enabled customers to avoid the burden of custom fixture design, improving turnkey system delivery for aircraft engine inspection programs.
Project Results
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Ready-made spool support fixture removes the need for customers to design their own hardware
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Field-proven fixture design now deployed across multiple aircraft engine facilities
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A turnkey fixture option reduces engineering work for aircraft engine MRO and OEM customers
