Aerospace customers do not want to hear that the machine that was cutting 30 µm TP last week now needs a week of ballbar work because a slinger caught the way covers. Here is what we tick off before the hook takes weight.
Before disconnect
- Baseline ballbar and laser interferometer run, filed and signed.
- Photograph the levelling pad heights and torque marks on every anchor bolt.
- Drain and cap the coolant and hydraulic circuits. Label the caps.
On the lift
- Lift points confirmed against the manufacturer's installation manual, not the operator's memory.
- Slings padded at every contact with a hard edge. Way covers wrapped in shrink film, not just packing tape.
- Spindle locked with the OEM shipping bracket. Not a bit of dowel and a prayer.
After set-down
- Levelling to 0.02 mm/m across the bed before any electrical goes back on.
- Warm-up run to spec, 60 minutes minimum, before geometry checks.
- Repeat baseline ballbar and interferometer. If numbers drift more than 20% from the pre-move report, we stay on site until we know why.
Every step gets a signature and a timestamp. On MOD-adjacent work that paperwork is not overhead, it is the reason the customer sleeps.
