A track record of excellence: Atlas Copco’s Saltus GFAs

Over several years of partnership, we have delivered innovation, reliability, and long-term support to a major aerospace manufacturer for their airliner program. Read on to discover how we remain a trusted tooling partner and how our Saltus Geared Front Attachments (GFA) are the superior offset solution.

Selecting the right tooling supplier is one of the most crucial decisions a manufacturer can make. Between the costs, tool quality, expected lead times, and so much more, choosing the right tooling supplier is a strategic decision that can heavily impact the success of your facility.

Of course, focusing on one aspect alone is not enough. For example, focusing only on the costs can lead to faulty tools, which is why looking at the big picture is vital to making the right decisions and creating a flourishing manufacturing facility. Further, your challenges could exceed the potential savings by moving forward with an unsuitable supplier.

When you’re looking to integrate the best tools into your assembly, you should seek out the most experienced suppliers, and Atlas Copco is one of them. As an industrial tool company, we are dedicated to meeting our customers' assembly tool needs. Our extensive portfolio includes tightening tools, error-proofing solutions, quality assurance tools, and comprehensive software designed to meet the individual needs of every customer throughout the entire assembly process.

Saltus Geared Front Attachments are tailored specifically for torque applications in cramped spaces and on tube nuts. With Saltus GFAs, we can design standard and custom GFA products to meet a wide selection of customer needs.

Further, with Saltus, we are able to create GFAs that:

• Are made with high-grade steel to ensure durability and a long-lasting life
• Offer higher ROI due to more time between greasing intervals
• Are designed with a lighter and smaller frame compared to similar GFAs
• Have an internal magnetic siding to catch any steel debris

Lastly, when you choose Atlas Copco for your tooling and attachment needs, we can ship the entire solution pre-calibrated and line-ready, enabling you to leave no bolt unturned.

Related: Discover more about our Geared Front Attachments in our article, ‘Geared Front Attachments (GFA): An introduction.’

Our first batch of Saltus Geared Front Attachment models was released in the third quarter of 2020. Immediately, we took the GFAs to our customer to begin the qualification process and determine the best offset head attachments for the application. Thus began a year of testing at the customer site.

When the testing was complete, it was finally demonstrated that Saltus GFA was at the same quality level or better than the main competitors and received the final technical approval.

Following this validation, we provided hundreds of GFAs to our customer, facilitated by several key factors. The first was our relationship with the customer. Atlas Copco has successfully supplied thousands of tools for one of their airliner programs for over 15 years. As they continue to develop state-of-the-art technology, we remain committed to their success by supporting them with our exceptional tools and solutions, assisting them in executing the applications correctly.

The next advantage is having a single supplier that can provide a complete solution. This made life much easier for their maintenance department, as they could find the complete solution's technical documentation in ServAid, and the quoting process was much faster than had they chosen to move forward with multiple tooling suppliers.

Lastly, during this test, if our customer had technical issues regarding the offset heads, the Saltus team's proactivity was highly valuable compared to our competitors. This enabled our customer to get back to work faster, reducing downtime and demonstrating our commitment to our customers.

Thanks to our dedication to our customers, new opportunities present themselves to us. As a result of our commitment to this customer, they have continued ordering tools from us. Today, we have supplied them with 99 different tools, all of them with Saltus GFAs.

As we look toward the future, we will continue our partnership with this customer, delivering the best possible care and service. Regardless of your facility's size or age, Atlas Copco is dedicated to offering top-notch assembly tools and solutions backed by the finest experts in the field.

Are you ready to build a lasting partnership with a company that values your success as much as its own? Then, contact our experts today to learn more about who we are and our impressive product portfolio. Discover the best solutions and partner for your needs.