QUALITY SYSTEM & WARRANTY
Publish the warranty before the buyer has to ask for it.
Capital equipment buyers price risk, not just machines. Warranty scope, response commitments, spare-parts availability and what voids cover are among the first five questions in any serious evaluation. Hiding them until the contract stage signals that the answer is weak.
ILLUSTRATIVE — replace every period, percentage and response time with commitments the company can contractually honour.
WARRANTY AT A GLANCE
Stated in the same place for every model
| Item | Concept commitment | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Mechanical warranty period | 12 months from commissioning or 15 months from shipment, whichever comes first | Requires commissioning by an authorised engineer |
| Electrical and control components | 12 months from commissioning | Excludes damage from unstable supply or missing surge protection |
| Wear parts | Not covered | Sealing jaws, belts, forming set surfaces, filters and O-rings are consumables |
| Spare-parts availability | Concept commitment: 10 years from last shipment of the model | Subject to component supplier discontinuation, with notice |
| Remote support response | Concept commitment: within one business day for line-stop conditions | Requires remote access enabled at installation |
| On-site response | Scheduled case by case based on region and severity | Travel, visa and accommodation billed separately unless in warranty scope |
WHAT VOIDS COVER
Stated plainly, because it is what buyers actually argue about
Every warranty has exclusions. Publishing them is a trust signal, not a weakness.
Covered
- ✓Manufacturing defects in materials and workmanship
- ✓Component failure within the stated period under normal operation
- ✓Design faults identified after delivery
- ✓Firmware and control software defects
- ✓Replacement parts shipped under warranty
Not covered
- ×Wear parts and consumables
- ×Damage from packaging material outside the agreed specification
- ×Operation outside the stated environmental or utility limits
- ×Unauthorised modification, repair or parameter changes
- ×Damage from missing or bypassed safety devices
- ×Corrosion from cleaning agents outside the approved list
QUALITY PROCESS
Where quality is actually decided
Inspection at the end of the line catches symptoms. These five gates catch causes.
01
Incoming inspection
Dimensional and certificate checks on safety-relevant and product-contact components. Non-conforming lots are quarantined, not reworked on the line.
02
In-process verification
Sub-assembly checks at defined stages with signed records: film path alignment, jaw parallelism, servo tuning, pneumatic leak-down.
03
Functional run-in
Continuous run with the customer’s actual film and product where samples are available, recording rejects, seal integrity and repeatability.
04
Factory acceptance test
Run against a written protocol agreed before build. Buyer attends in person or by video. Results and open points are recorded and signed.
05
Site acceptance
Repeat of agreed performance criteria after installation under production conditions, with the ramp-up plan and operator sign-off.
What a FAT protocol should contain
- ✓Test article: exact product and film to be used
- ✓Measurable acceptance criteria, not ‘runs correctly’
- ✓Sample size and duration for each test
- ✓Seal integrity method and pass criteria
- ✓Weight or dose accuracy tolerance and sampling plan
- ✓Changeover time measurement method
- ✓Reject handling and what counts as a fault
- ✓Punch list format and closure responsibility
COMMON QUESTIONS
Questions buyers ask before a technical discussion
In this concept it starts at commissioning, with an outer limit from shipment so that a machine left uninstalled for a year does not extend cover indefinitely. Both dates should always be written into the contract.
Machine behaviour is bounded by the material it is built around. Running an unagreed film does not automatically void the whole warranty, but failures traceable to the material are not covered. This is why film specification belongs in the FAT protocol.
Extended cover is normally offered as a service agreement rather than a longer warranty, because it includes scheduled maintenance and parts as well as defect cover. Ask for both options and compare total cost.
This is the most common dispute in machinery contracts. State it explicitly: in this concept, parts and labour are covered, while travel, visa and accommodation are quoted separately unless a service agreement covers them.
START WITH THE APPLICATION
Ask for the warranty terms before you ask for the price
A supplier who cannot send warranty scope and response commitments in writing within a day is telling you something about their service organisation.