Family 01
Rolling work platforms and maintenance stands
A deck at the right height, a guardrail on every open side, and casters that let one person reposition it. Configured to the work area — not ordered off a shelf and made to fit.
Platform types, and what each one solves
Cantilever platforms
The deck extends past the base so it can reach over an obstruction — a wing leading edge, a nacelle, a fixture. Use when the aircraft geometry stops you from parking a base where the work is.
Watch for: counterweight and footprint. A cantilever that reaches further needs more floor behind it, and that is a hangar layout question before it is a product question.
Straddle and clamshell platforms
Two decks that close around a section — a fuselage, an engine, a tail cone — so technicians work both sides at once without a gap at the contour.
Watch for: the contour cutout. This is where custom usually starts, because the cutout has to match the airframe or you have created a fall gap instead of closing one.
Ring and encircling platforms
Segmented decks that surround an engine, radome or rotor head. Common in engine change and composite repair cells where the same job runs constantly.
Watch for: how it breaks down and where the segments live between jobs. A ring you cannot store is a ring that gets damaged.
Mobile maintenance stands
The general-purpose unit: fixed or adjustable deck height, guardrails, integral stair or ladder access, locking casters. The one that moves between four jobs a day.
Watch for: deck size versus maneuverability. Most shops buy a deck bigger than they need and then cannot get it through the door with the aircraft in the bay.
Cargo and hatch access stands
Deck height matched to the sill so the transition into the hold is level. Removes the step-up that produces most hold-entry injuries.
Watch for: sill height varies by type and by loading. Give us the aircraft and the typical condition, not a single number.
Tooling and assembly platforms
Access built around a fixture in a work cell rather than around an aircraft. Often semi-permanent, often with power, air and tool storage integrated into the structure.
Watch for: whether it needs to be mobile at all. If it never moves, a fixed platform is cheaper, more rigid and easier to guard.
Nesting against the contour
Cutouts and non-marring contact faces. Usually where a custom build starts.
Standing off it
Cheaper and simpler — but the gap is now a fall exposure that has to be guarded.
The options that actually matter in a hangar
| Option | Why it comes up |
|---|---|
| Non-marring contact points | Any surface that can touch the airframe gets a soft face. This is the first thing a maintenance manager checks and the first thing a cheap stand gets wrong. |
| FOD-conscious construction | Closed deck surfaces, captive hardware, no loose fasteners or debris traps. Foreign object debris is a line-stopping event, not a housekeeping item. |
| Caster and brake selection | Load rating, floor surface, and whether one person can move it loaded. Total-lock brakes where the deck is occupied. |
| Adjustable deck height | Worth it when one stand serves several aircraft types. Not worth it when it serves one job — adjustment is a mechanism, and a mechanism is something to maintain. |
| Stair versus ladder access | A stair with a handrail is safer and faster when technicians carry tooling. A ladder is smaller. Decide by what people carry up. |
| Tow provisions | If it crosses a ramp, it needs a tow eye and the right casters. Retrofitting this later is more expensive than specifying it now. |
| Deck surface | Slip resistance, drainage, and whether dropped hardware falls through onto the aircraft below. |
| Power, air and tool storage | Every trip back down the stairs is time. On a job you run daily, drops and trays pay for themselves. |
What we need from you to quote it
You do not need a drawing. You need the six answers on the specifying guide, and ideally a photo of how the job is done today. Send those and you will have a configuration and a range back, usually within two business days.
If a stock unit does the job, we will tell you — and we will tell you when the honest answer is a lift, a fixed platform, or a different vendor entirely.
A note on ratings
We do not publish load ratings or dimensions on this page, because a rating without a configuration is marketing rather than information. The rated capacity, deck dimensions, guardrail height and the design standard the build is dimensioned against — OSHA 1910.23, 1910.29 and ANSI-ASC A14.7 as applicable — are stated on the drawing issued with every quote, before you commit to anything.