Buying Manufacturing Equipment: What to Check
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The spec sheet is the last thing to look at. A machine is worth buying when it makes your parts, at your volumes, in your building, with someone nearby who can fix it. Work through those in order.
Start with the parts
List the five to ten parts that will pay for the machine. For each one, write down the material, the largest size, the tightest tolerance, the surface finish and the yearly volume. The work envelope has to fit the largest part plus its fixture and the tool reaching it, not just the part. If one oversized part pushes you to a bigger machine, compare that against sending just that part out.
Do the capacity math
Multiply yearly volume by cycle time, including loading and unloading. 20,000 parts a year at 6 minutes each is 2,000 hours. One shift is also about 2,000 hours a year, but no machine cuts for all of them: setups, changeovers, maintenance and first-article checks take their share. If you assume the spindle cuts 65 percent of the time, one shift gives you about 1,300 cutting hours, and that job alone needs more than a shift. Use your own numbers if you track them, then decide between a faster machine, a second machine, a pallet changer or a second shift.
Price the whole installation
The purchase price is only the start. Get these quoted before you commit:
- Tooling and workholding: tool holders, cutters, vises, chucks and fixtures. A new machining center can't make a part without them.
- Power. Many Canadian plants run on 600 V three-phase. Machines built for 380 or 400 V, common in China and Europe, or 480 V in the US, need a transformer or a factory voltage change.
- Air, coolant and chips: compressed air, coolant management, chip conveyors and disposal.
- Floor and rigging: machine weight, foundation or anchoring, rigging costs and the door it has to fit through.
- Extraction for fumes and dust from lasers, welding, composites and grinding.
- Running costs: power, consumables, maintenance contracts and operator time.
Service, parts and the control
Ask who services the machine in Ontario and how long common spare parts take to arrive. A machine waiting weeks for a spindle drive is an expensive paperweight. A widely used control also makes it easier to hire programmers and find answers.
Buying used? Check spindle hours, backlash and positioning on every axis, and the condition of the ball screws and ways. Worn ball screws are a common reason an older machine stops holding size, and they can often be rebuilt or replaced. See our ball screw case study.
Approvals and safety in Ontario
Electrical equipment used in Ontario has to carry the mark of an accredited certification or evaluation agency, such as CSA, or UL and Intertek marks for Canada. A machine certified only for Europe (CE) or China (CCC) doesn't qualify on its own. It can be approved through a field evaluation to CSA SPE-1000, but that takes time and sometimes changes to the electrical panel, so sort it out before the machine ships, not after it lands.
Ontario also requires a pre-start health and safety review before certain equipment or processes go into operation in a factory, and machine safeguarding is one of the cases. Find out early whether yours needs one.
Buying from overseas
- Run a factory acceptance test on your own part or a test cut, in person or on video, before the final payment.
- Get the electrical drawings, manuals and parameter backups in English.
- Put the voltage, the certification mark and the spare parts kit in the contract, not in an email.
- Be clear about the shipping terms (the Incoterm), crating, insurance, duties and who installs it.
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