1. What the machine has to accept from your part
Start with the part, not the equipment. Write down the glass thickness range, the panel outline, the via field and where the datum marks for alignment sit on it, and the PI film you intend to bond, including how it is supplied and how long it stays usable once opened. Alignment tolerances only mean something once the datum pair is fixed, so a supplier who is told "we have TGV glass" cannot answer them; a supplier who is given the drawing and the mark layout can.
State what counts as an acceptable bond. On this class of machine the defect that the process framing targets is alignment bubbling, so define the largest bubble, the count per panel, and the inspection method you will use, and agree the same method with the supplier before any trial runs. If you have not decided this, the trial will produce results nobody can sign off.
2. How it will be fed and unloaded
Decide whether the machine is loaded by hand, by a cassette, or by an upstream station that passes parts across a handshake. That single decision changes the footprint, the operator count, and the way faults are reported. Spell out: the loading orientation and pitch, whether parts arrive on a carrier or bare, what the machine signals when a part is bad, and what the upstream station does when the machine stops. A missing interlock definition is the most common cause of a cell that runs well alone and stops the line when it is connected.
If the cell will sit inside a wider line, treat the line integration as a separate work package. automated production line solutions cover this side of the job: conveyance, handshakes, the stop and restart logic shared with neighbouring equipment, and the records each station produces.
3. What the utilities and the room can give it
Confirm the supply before the drawing is frozen: phase, voltage and frequency, the connected load of the heating and vacuum functions, the earthing arrangement, and where your isolator ends and the machine's begins. Then confirm compressed air quality and dew point, vacuum demand, and any inert gas the process needs, including who supplies it and at what point in the plant it is metered.
Room conditions belong in the same list. Process-bonding equipment is sensitive to temperature drift and airborne particles, so record the ambient range and the cleanroom class the cell will actually sit in, and check service access, door width and floor loading. Anything not verified here becomes a change order later.
4. Recipes, changeover, and who owns the program
Selectable recipes are part of how this equipment is described, which makes the recipe question concrete rather than abstract. Ask what a recipe actually contains: temperature and pressure profile, dwell, alignment offsets, vacuum or nip sequence, and speed. Ask who can edit a recipe, whether edits are logged, and whether a recipe can be locked after approval. Then time a changeover on your own part, with your own operators, and record what changed between the first and the third panel.
Agree in writing what happens to program and recipe rights after acceptance, and how the machine is restored if a configuration is lost. These are contractual details, and they are easier to settle before the order than after the machine is running.
5. Safety and operator access
Heat, vacuum and moving bonding heads mean the safety case has to be written before commissioning: guard interlocks and what a opened guard actually stops, emergency-stop coverage including the upstream station, restart behaviour after a stop, pinch points at the nip, and the safe procedure for clearing a jam or a dropped panel. Ask for the risk assessment as a deliverable rather than assuming one exists, and confirm which safety standard the design is built to.
6. Trial and acceptance on your own parts
The published parameter rows for process equipment are the supplier's limits, not your process window. For a TGV alignment packaging machine, run the trial on your own glass and your own PI film, and inspect with the method you agreed in section one. Record alignment results against the datum marks you chose, bubble size and count, and the cycle time together with what the cycle includes: load, alignment, bond, unload. A figure without its contents is not comparable between suppliers.
Repeat the run on a second batch before sign-off, and list any open item with an owner and a closing condition. Acceptance against your parts, twice, is a stronger basis than a demonstration on the supplier's sample set. If your process sits between the catalog machines, send the drawing, the film and the acceptance criterion through the enquiry route used for customized steam cleaning equipment; that page is where PowerDe scopes requirement analysis and scheme design, and it carries process-equipment enquiries as well.
7. Spares, consumables and service
Ask for the wear list separated three ways: consumables you buy routinely, parts you replace yourself, and parts only a technician changes, each with a part number rather than a description. Confirm lead times, who holds stock, and what documentation travels with the machine: electrical drawings, panel layout, terminal schedule, the I/O list that matches the handshake signals, and manuals written for the program actually delivered rather than the base version.
8. Data and traceability
Decide what each cycle has to leave behind. For glass-to-film bonding that usually means the recipe used, the alignment result against the chosen datum, and the pass or fail decision, all tied to a part identifier. Confirm which of these the machine records natively, which has to be added, and how records leave the machine: local storage, an export, or a line system connection. Fault naming on the screen matters here too; "Error 12" cannot be trended, and a named fault is what lets you see whether stoppages come from alignment, vacuum, or handling.
Where the machine sits in your equipment plan
This class of equipment belongs to semiconductor process equipment on the site, alongside the lamination and bonding machines that handle film-to-substrate work. The reason it matters for planning is that the neighbouring stations set the tolerances you inherit: a panel that arrives with marks already off will not be rescued downstream. Mapping those neighbours, and the tolerances between them, is part of the specification you write, not something the machine supplier will do for you unless the scope is bought explicitly.
Before the order: the questions to close
- Which datum marks on your part define alignment, and what offset is acceptable between them?
- What is your bubble criterion, and by which inspection method is it read?
- How are parts loaded, and what handshake signals pass between this cell and the station before it?
- What happens to the upstream station when this machine stops?
- What supply, air, vacuum and gas are available at that point in the plant, and who is responsible for each?
- What temperature range and particle class does the room actually hold?
- What does one recipe contain, who may edit it, and are edits logged?
- What did a timed changeover on your own part take, and what changed between panels?
- Which records does each cycle produce, and how do they leave the machine?
- What is on the wear list by part number, and who stocks it?
A machine that answers all ten has been specified; a machine that answers none of them has only been priced. PowerDe's own route for process-equipment requirements starts at the enquiry stage, where requirement analysis, scheme design, mechanical and electrical design, prototype work and testing are scoped before anything is committed, which is the same order of work these questions follow.
