Aircraft structural repair has always carried a tooling constraint that the PartWorks PrecisionFX PFX15K is designed to remove. Traditional hydraulic pullers -- the tools used to install expanded-fit bushings, rivetless nutplates, and cold-expanded sleeves in airframe fastener holes -- require hydraulic pump stations connected to the tool by pressurized lines. Those lines limit mobility around an aircraft, create trip hazards on the flight line and in hangars, restrict access to tight spaces, and add setup and teardown time to every installation job. The PFX15K replaces all of that with a self-contained, battery-powered, handheld tool that delivers 15,000 lbf of pull force through 3.5 inches of stroke in five seconds at full load.
The engineering behind that performance is a BLDC motor driving a high-power micro-hydraulic pump with a modular reservoir. The system is enclosed in durable housing with double-insulated circuitry and fault detection for safe, quiet operation in production and MRO environments. An onboard microcontroller manages operations, setup, tool management, data acquisition, storage, and logging. A color LCD display gives the operator real-time awareness of force, stroke position, and process status without requiring a connected device.
The programmability of the PFX15K is what separates it from earlier battery-powered pullers. Stroke length, force limits, and rate of travel are all adjustable, allowing the tool to be configured precisely for each installation type. An adjustable stroke allows installation of multiple grip conditions with a single mandrel, reducing setup time and eliminating the free play that compromises installation quality when technicians swap mandrels between jobs. Dual-axis indexing rotation allows the tool to reach hard-to-access structural locations that fixed-orientation pullers cannot address.
Compatibility is broad by design. The PFX15K works with both PartWorks tooling attachments and competitor legacy platforms, including lockbolts, blind bolts, alignment pins, split sleeve cold expansion, and press-fit or shrink-fit bushing installations. Integrated pressure transducer and position sensor data feeds into the RepAR augmented reality system, completing the validation loop: every installation is guided by AR, executed by the PFX15K, and documented with the force, stroke, and position data that proves the cold expansion process was completed correctly. That documentation record supports life extension credit submissions and certification compliance for both military and commercial programs.
For fleet maintenance operations and OEM production lines where bushing installation volume is high and tooling standardization matters, the PFX15K represents a shift from a two-person, hydraulic-line-dependent process to a single-technician, cordless workflow that moves with the work rather than requiring the work to come to the tool.
Source: PartWorks -- https://partworks.com/precision-fx-pfx15k/