Airbus

Airbus is one of the world's leading aircraft manufacturers with arguably the most modern and comprehensive family of airliners on the market. These range in capacity from 100 seats to more than 500 seats. The A320 Family, which includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321, is recognized as the benchmark for single-aisle aircraft family in the industry.

A global company, Airbus has design and manufacturing facilities in France, Germany, the UK, and Spain as well as subsidiaries in the US, China and Japan. Headquartered in Toulouse, France, Airbus is an EADS joint Company with BAE SYSTEMS.

Wing assembly for many of the aircraft, such as the A318, the A319, the Hawker Beechcraft and the long-range wings for the A380, is carried out in Broughton, Flintshire. From here wings are transported to the Airbus final assembly lines in France, Germany and the US.

Cosalt has worked with Airbus now for over seven years providing a number of specialist lifting services. Not surprisingly the two companies have built up a strong working relationship. At any one time Cosalt has had between two and five engineers permanently on site. This team has been supplemented by additional engineers from Cosalt's Birkenhead branch as the work demanded.

With over 30,000 items of loose lifting equipment on site, ranging from slings, shackles and eyebolts through to chain blocks, pull lifts and safety lines, Cosalt has been required to provide a wide range of lifting services.

By law all lifting equipment must be inspected every six or twelve months in order to comply with the LOLER regulations and ensure it is fit-for-purpose. So to keep Airbus's tool balances, winches, vertical workstations and lifting beams in full working order, Cosalt's engineers have been tasked with carrying out the repair work arising from these scheduled inspections.

The team have also been responsible for looking after a programme of Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM). This requires equipment to be inspected between scheduled inspections and repaired if found faulty. Replacement parts are also sourced and supplied as required through Cosalt.

Any problems with lifting gear that arise on a day-to-day basis are dealt with as part of the site's emergency call out service. Items with worn out parts are taken away, repaired or replaced and returned to the teams working on the wing assembly lines.

Explained Airbus's Site Lifting Co-Ordinator Mike Evans: "Cosalt deliver a first class service. They always go the extra mile and offer more than is expected. Above all we have benefited from their technical expertise and ability to solve problems. If any of our teams needed advice on how to lift or move a piece of equipment Cosalt's engineers have been on site and available to give us sound advice. They have the knack of explaining in straightforward language what equipment to use, as well as the skills to train our people in the correct way to use it."