A request for quotation for a 3D surface vacuum bonding machine often arrives as a single line: model name, quantity, target price. The machine that comes back matches the line and misses the process. In display and semiconductor bonding, the quotation is where most integration risk is settled, because the supplier can only build what the document asks for. The questions below are the ones worth putting in the RFQ before pricing is compared.
1. What is being bonded to what, and how large?
Start with the material stack, not the machine. State the substrate on both sides — glass, film, flexible OLED module, metal plate — whether the pair is soft-to-hard, soft-to-soft or hard-to-hard, and the outline of the finished product. A vacuum bonding cell is sized by the largest part it must hold, so part dimensions belong in the RFQ as a range rather than a single sample. On the 3D surface vacuum bonding machine listing, for example, the vacuum chamber is specified at 550 × 500 × 300 mm and pressed products up to 300 × 150 mm are named; a part outside that envelope needs a different chamber, and that change is cheaper to price before the order than after commissioning.
2. How curved is the surface, and what is the alignment tolerance?
Flat and curved surfaces are not the same machine class. Ask the supplier to name the mechanism that handles curvature — an arc mechanism, a vacuum chuck, a flexible membrane — and say in the RFQ whether your surface is a single radius or a compound 3D form. Then state the accuracy you actually need: deviation allowed at the edge of the bonded area, and whether that applies at first article and at continuous output. The bonding machine referenced above lists a conformity accuracy of ±0.1 mm with X, Y and θ automatic angle adjustment on the workbench. Put your own number in the RFQ and ask the supplier to write theirs beside it, so the two are compared rather than assumed.
3. What cycle time, and at what yield, measured how?
Cycle time and pass rate are only meaningful with a test condition attached. A listing may report a cycle of about 25 s per piece, or a run-rate figure measured on a 5.5-inch soft-to-hard sample, and a sample that size says nothing about a larger or harder substrate. In the RFQ, define the piece you want timed: substrate pair, size, and whether the quoted time includes load, alignment, bond, unload and recovery. Ask for three numbers kept separate — cycle time, pass rate at acceptance, and availability — because they are answered by different parts of the machine. The machine above, for instance, states a product pass rate of at least 98% and an equipment failure rate of no more than 2%, alongside a cycle figure; a quotation that bundles all of these into one "throughput" line should be sent back for a breakdown.
4. How long does a changeover take, and what does it require?
Most production lines run several products on one machine. Ask how the machine holds product recipes, whether the carrier and clamping tooling are quick-change, and what has to be recalibrated when a new product is introduced. The reference machine describes a universal template made of anti-static, anti-injury materials and changeover calibration times in the region of 20 to 30 minutes depending on the change; it also lists a liquid wheel bonding process as the fitting unit. Put your product mix in the RFQ — how many families, how often you switch — and ask for the changeover procedure in writing, including who performs it and what consumables it uses.
5. What vacuum, pressure and clamping method does the process need?
State the bond window your material requires, and ask the supplier to show that the machine operates inside it rather than near its limit. The relevant parameters to request line by line: chamber vacuum level and how it is generated, bonding pressure range and how pressure is displayed and logged, and the clamping method — cylinder, electromagnet, vacuum adsorption — since clamping determines which substrates can be held without damage. The machine above lists a vacuum generator with a vacuum pump, a fitting pressure range of 0.05 to 0.5 MPa and mechanical pressure display in MPa. If your process needs a logged pressure curve for traceability, say so in the RFQ; a mechanical gauge and a recorded curve are different deliverables at different cost.
6. What alignment and defect control is included?
Ask what the alignment system is, how it is verified after the machine is installed, and what happens when an alignment drifts. An intelligent camera system and an industrial computer with a touch screen are common on this class of equipment, but the useful RFQ question is what the system does with what it sees: does it reject, re-align, or simply record? Also ask which defects the machine is expected to prevent — bubbles and misalignment at the bond interface are the usual ones — and how that is demonstrated during acceptance. For related steps in the same process chain, the same level of detail applies to the high-pressure debubbling machine that often follows bonding, and to the wider semiconductor process equipment category you are buying from.
7. What are the utility, space and facility requirements?
Give the supplier your constraints and ask for theirs. Footprint of the rack, ceiling height including any lifting or flipping motion, floor loading, power supply, compressed air, vacuum, exhaust and, where the process is light-sensitive, the room environment. The reference machine's rack is listed at L2500 × W1600 × H2200 mm, and its operation includes a flipping and lifting motion for the glass or substrate carrier — information that changes how the cell is laid out and how it is serviced. Ask for a layout drawing with service clearances, not only the machine outline.
8. What exactly is being tested before shipment?
Ask the supplier to state, in the quotation, the acceptance tests they will run and the criteria they will pass or fail against: a cycle-time run on your material, an alignment measurement against the stated accuracy, a pass-rate run over a defined number of pieces, and a continuous-operation check. State what you will verify on site after installation, and who pays for the second trip if the machine does not reach the stated numbers. This is also the place to record which published figures are treated as targets and which are treated as measured results — figures on product pages are frequently tied to one specific test sample, and a machine's performance on your substrate is a separate claim.
9. What support exists after the machine arrives?
Ask who commissions the machine, what training your engineers and operators receive, which spare parts are consumables and what they cost, and what the response commitment is when a line is down. For a machine from a display and semiconductor equipment manufacturer that also sells customised lines, it is worth asking in the same RFQ whether the same team that built the machine will support it, and whether process support — recipe setup, material trials, later upgrades — is quoted or included. Put your ramp schedule in the document so the supplier can commit to installation dates.
What the finished RFQ should let you compare
A well-asked RFQ turns three quotations into one table. Each supplier answers the same ten lines: material stack and part size, curvature and tolerance, cycle time with test condition, pass rate and availability, changeover time, process window for vacuum and pressure, alignment and defect control, facility requirements, acceptance testing, and support terms. Any supplier unwilling to answer in those terms has told you something about the delivery phase as well. Send your stack, sizes and target rate to our engineering team, and you will receive a quotation written against those lines rather than a price alone.
