When a buyer asks us to build a machine that does not exist in a catalogue, the first question is never about price. It is: what has to be true before this equipment is allowed on our shop floor? For buyers, the answer is a documented set of safety requirements. For a manufacturer of non-standard automation equipment, those requirements have to be reviewed line by line before the drawing is released, not after the machine arrives on site.
Start from the process, not from the machine
A custom cell is usually defined by the operation it performs: laminating a film, pressing a stack, coating a substrate, cleaning a part between stations. Each operation carries its own hazards, so the review begins by listing what the machine physically does at every stage of its cycle — loading, clamping, heating, moving, venting, unloading, and every manual intervention an operator or a maintenance technician might make in between. Anything done by hand during a cycle is where most of the safety work concentrates.
Write down the energy sources the machine carries
Standard machines are usually assessed against one or two energy sources. Custom machines tend to combine several, and this combination is where reviews fail. For our own equipment the list typically includes:
- Electrical supply and control voltage, plus stored energy in drives, capacitors and batteries on mobile units
- Pneumatic and vacuum circuits, including pressure held in a chamber after power is removed
- Heated plates, tanks and process chambers that stay hot after the cycle stops
- Moving axes, presses and rollers, with the pinch and shear points they create
- Process fluids — water, steam, solvents or coating material — and what they do when released
Each of these needs an isolation method, a way to prove it is isolated, and a way to release residual energy before anyone reaches inside. On a fixed steam cleaning unit for example, the tank stays hot and pressurised after the machine is switched off, so the review has to cover draining, venting and the warnings that make those steps unavoidable rather than optional.
Match guarding to the risk, and prove it works
Guards, interlocks, light curtains and two-hand controls are selected according to how quickly an injury can occur, not according to budget. The review should record, for every access point, what stops the hazard, how fast it stops, and what happens when the protective device itself fails. A useful habit is to state each protective function as a test that the buyer can repeat at acceptance: open the guard, the axis stops; block the light curtain, the cycle will not start; press the emergency stop, the motion stops and the process state is retained and reported. If a function cannot be tested, it cannot be accepted.
Control system, software and modes of operation
A large part of modern machine safety lives in the control system, so the review must cover it explicitly. The questions we work through are: which safety functions are implemented in dedicated hardware and which depend on software; what happens on a communication loss between the controller and a drive or a vision system; whether manual mode, setup mode and automatic mode are separated, and what a user is allowed to do in each; and whether a maintenance mode that bypasses a protective function exists, who can enable it, and how long it stays enabled. Where a custom machine is built to imitate an existing process — a bonding line or a cleaning station integrated into an existing cell — the new equipment has to fit the safety behaviour of the line it joins, not just stand on its own.
The paper trail a buyer should expect
Ask any supplier, including us, for the following before the machine ships. If the documents cannot be produced, the review is not finished.
- The hazard list and the reasoning behind each protective measure
- Electrical drawings, pneumatic and vacuum drawings, and the wiring schedule
- Component list with the make and rating of safety parts, not just functional parts
- Test records showing each safety function was exercised, with the result recorded
- The operating and maintenance manual, including residual risks that remain after guarding
- Consumables, wear parts and the interval at which they must be replaced
Specifications deserve the same scepticism. A temperature, a pressure or a dimension quoted in marketing copy is not a design guarantee. Our own product pages carry parameters such as tank volume, heating power and footprint, and the responsible practice is to confirm the numbers that matter for your installation in writing, at order stage, against the build you are actually buying.
How to bring requirements to the first meeting
The most expensive custom projects fail at the requirements stage, because the buyer's safety expectations arrive after the design is fixed. Bring your site rules, your permit-to-work system, your utilities (voltage, compressed air, water quality, extraction) and the space the machine must fit into, including the aisle an operator and a part on a trolley need. Bring your maintenance plan too — who opens the machine, how often, and with what training. A manufacturer who asks about your technicians is asking the right question.
Shenzhen PowerDe Automation Precision Equipment builds custom automation alongside standard cleaning equipment, from steam and hot-water units to bonding and coating process equipment, so requirements review is a routine conversation rather than an exception. If you have a process that needs a machine that does not exist yet, send us the operation, the constraints and the standards your site works to at sales@powerde.net, and we will come back with what we can build and what we cannot guarantee.
