Hinge Line Alignment

Aligning the spherical bearings in aircraft hinge lines has traditionally been very time consuming and required multiple alignment crews to get the job done. Since its debut, our L-705 Hinge Line Laser Alignment System has revolutionized hinge line alignment by transforming an 8-hour job requiring a crew of 8 using 4 theodolites, to a job requiring less than 2 hours and a crew of only 2, while increasing accuracy and repeatability. Multiple manufacturers are now using our system to align hinge-pin bushings in tooling fixtures and vertical and horizontal stabilizers.

L-705 Hinge Line Laser Alignment System

More than 50 years of alignment experience went into the design of the L-705 Hinge Line Laser Alignment System, which is capable of handling a wide range of bore diameters and is highly accurate and unparalleled for ease of use:

  • The L-705 is designed with standard aerospace tooling diameter of 2.25 in. (57.15 mm) for maximum utility
  • The centering of the L-705 laser beam to the housing is controlled to extremely tight tolerances, usually less than .0005 in. (0.013 mm).
  • Our T-271 Virtual Target is designed specifically for hinge line spherical bearings to make the target insensitive to bearing squareness to the centerline, eliminate expensive tooling.
  • Built-in angular adjustment micrometers on the back of the L-705 precisely tilt the laser beam for fast alignment to bore references. 
  • Straightness measurements to ±.0001 in. in 10 ft (±0.0025 mm in 3 m) or ±.001 in. in 100 ft (0.025 mm in 30.5 m).
  • Simple X-Y Readouts show the data updating in real time for extremely fast alignments.
  • Optional Windows-based alignment software makes collecting and analyzing alignment data fast and easy.

Resource Center

L-705 Hinge Line Laser Alignment System Configuration