What a deliverable list has to cover in writing
Deliverables are the items both sides can point to when a disagreement appears. For bonding equipment, three groups are usually missing from an initial offer: the sample plan and its measurement method, the interface conditions the buyer must provide, and the acceptance script with pass criteria. Everything else — drawings, spare-parts lists, training — tends to arrive on its own. These three do not, because they describe decisions rather than hardware.
Write each deliverable as a noun with an owner and a date: “alignment test report on buyer-supplied covers, produced by the supplier during FAT, before shipment”, not “testing will be carried out”. A clause that cannot be handed over as a document, a file or a signed page is not a deliverable; it is an intention.
Define the sample set before the machine is built
Curved-surface work is only as representative as the parts it was tested on. Ask for a defined sample set in the contract: the parts your line will actually run, including the most difficult geometry in that set, supplied by you, not substitute flats that the supplier keeps on hand. A machine proven on a gentle curve can still fail on a steep edge radius, and that is discovered with the production parts on the table.
Then state how a bonded part counts as acceptable. Cosmetic judgement varies between two inspectors, so the deliverable should be a written criterion plus the reference images or boundary samples that show it. Where the process carries a published figure — our 3D Surface Vacuum Bonding Machine listing, for instance, states an uptime of 98% or more and a 20-second cycle time from a 5.5-inch soft-to-hard test — ask in writing which test produced it and how the same measurement would be reproduced on your parts. A number copied into a specification without its test condition is not a commitment you can enforce.
Fix the boundary of responsibility with an interface list
Most integration disputes start at the interface: power quality, compressed-air dew point, cleanroom class, floor loading, upstream and downstream handling, and the data connection to your line system. Request a two-column interface list from the supplier — what they supply, what you supply — with the values they assume for each item. Any assumption you do not confirm becomes your cost when the building does not meet it.
The same list should cover consumables and spares: which parts are included, which are stocked locally, and how quickly a replacement arrives. A machine that reaches its target cycle time but waits two weeks for a sealing component will not hold your line plan.
Split the acceptance into two events
Do not accept the equipment once. Ask for a factory acceptance run on your own samples before shipment, with a signed report, and a second acceptance at your site after installation, on your line, at your shift pattern. The first protects the machine; the second protects the process. Both dates, both participant lists, and both pass criteria belong in the contract, and payment milestones should follow them.
Ask also for the documentation your own people will need a year later: recipe and parameter documentation you can read and edit, the mechanical and electrical drawings as files rather than printed scans, the PLC or motion-control structure where access is permitted, and a spare-parts list with part numbers. Source files are worth a clause; a folder of photographs is not.
When the equipment is part of a wider line scope
Bonding rarely stands alone. Handling, lamination, debubbling and inspection are often bought from different vendors, and each handover becomes a place where responsibility disappears. If your project covers more than one station, ask for one integrator to own the acceptance of the whole flow, or write the handover conditions between stations yourself. Where the vendor already builds adjacent stations, as with our semiconductor process equipment range, that single-point responsibility is usually easier to obtain — but it still has to appear as a named deliverable, not as an expectation.
A short list to send with your enquiry
- Sample plan: your parts, including the hardest geometry, supplied by you, with the test dates named
- Acceptance criteria in writing, with reference images or boundary samples and the method for each figure quoted
- Interface list with the values the supplier assumes for utilities, environment, handling and data
- Factory acceptance before shipment and site acceptance on your line, each with a signed report
- Editable drawings, parameter and recipe documentation, spare-parts list with part numbers and lead times
- Named responsibility for integration between stations, if more than one vendor is involved
Shenzhen PowerDe Automation Precision Equipment publishes its equipment range and engineering services openly, and the questions above are the ones we answer on paper for every bonding project we quote. Send us your part geometry and your line conditions, and the reply will come back with the sample plan, the assumptions and the acceptance criteria written out — which is a far better basis for a decision than a price alone.
