Heard a lead inspector say torque seals are just for show, got me second guessing half my paperwork

I was helping a guy with a 737 flap track last Wednesday and he casually mentioned that torque seals don't prove anything since you can just twist them on after, and now I'm wondering how many of my own sign-offs are actually worth the paper they're written on, anyone else ever run into this mindset on the floor?

2 comments

2 Comments

blairj5524d ago

The guy's not wrong. Torque seals are basically a visual deterrent, not actual proof. You can pop one off with a screwdriver, torque the bolt to whatever you want, and stick a new seal on nobody the wiser. I've seen guys hang a seal off their badge and just twist it onto fasteners that were never touched. The paperwork's only as good as the guy signing it, so if someone's already cutting corners with seals they're probably cutting them on the actual work too.

the_oscar24d ago

Hold on, those seals are just another layer of accountability on a big job. A guy who knows his stuff puts them on so the inspector can see at a glance that nothing's been touched since he walked away. If someone's already faking the paperwork and the seals, they'd be cutting corners with or without them, so the seal's just a tool to make the honest man's work easier to verify.