Spare Parts and Warranty FAQ

1. What warranty actually covers

Warranty for machinery is typically twelve months from commissioning or eighteen from shipment, whichever comes first, and covers defects in materials and workmanship under normal operation. What matters is the exclusion list: wear parts, operator damage, incorrect operation, and consumables are normally outside warranty, and the list is where the real terms live.

Ask the supplier to write the exclusions explicitly, because 'warranty' means different things to different suppliers. A twelve-month warranty with a short, fair exclusion list is worth more than eighteen months with a long one.

Register the warranty and the machine serial numbers with the supplier after order; that registration is the reference for every claim.

2. Wear parts and exclusions

Wear parts are the components that degrade by design: seals, valves, belts, guide rails, grippers, and the filler valve seats on high-speed lines. They are excluded from warranty and they are exactly the parts that will fail first — which is why the spare-parts plan is not about warranty at all, it is about uptime.

Get the supplier's wear-part list with the order, with expected life under normal duty. That list is the basis of the starter kit and the reorder budget.

3. The first-year starter kit

A first-year starter kit covers the high-wear positions: sensors, seals, valves, belts and the small controls that stop a line when they fail. It is agreed at order, priced as part of the package, and cheaper than air-freighting a single sensor from another continent later — both in money and in downtime.

Stock the kit at the plant and keep an inventory sheet; a kit that is half-used and unrecorded is as useless as no kit.

4. The reorder channel

After year one, parts come from the supplier's spares channel: a catalogue, an order point, and a shipping method with a response-time commitment. Confirm the channel before order — the machine is only as reliable as the parts channel behind it.

Ask which parts are stocked locally (filters, common sensors) versus shipped on order, and confirm the quoted lead times. The honest answer is a spec sheet, not a promise.

5. Remote support and diagnostics

Remote support uses video calls, logged machine data and guided fault-finding to resolve routine issues without a visit. Most first-year issues — sensors, settings, small adjustments — are solvable remotely when the operator can show the technician the machine.

Agree the remote support channel and the response window in the contract. The line should have a documented contact path, not a 'call us if anything happens' arrangement.

6. Technician visits

For major issues and annual overhauls, a technician visit is the answer: travel, accommodation, daily rate and visa (where applicable) are agreed in advance. The trigger for a visit should be defined — remote diagnostics escalate to a visit when the issue exceeds a defined response or severity.

Preventive visits (a scheduled annual check) catch wear before it stops the line. Buyers who skip them save a little and lose more in unscheduled downtime.

7. Building the after-sales plan

Build the plan at order time with four items: warranty terms read line by line, a wear-part list with expected life, a first-year kit priced into the package, and a documented spares channel with response times. All four fit in the contract — and the contract is the only place they survive contact with reality.

The same plan applies to a filling machine, a combiblock or a complete line; the parts differ, the discipline does not.

Frequently asked questions