Non-standard automation is rarely bought off a shelf. It is engineered around a specific line, a specific part and a specific site, so the machine you receive is only as good as the assumptions both sides made about the space it has to fit into. Before a build order is signed, experienced buyers walk through the same handful of installation questions and put the answers in writing.
Start with what the site can actually supply
The first filter is infrastructure, not mechanics. Confirm the available supply voltage and phase, the connected load the equipment will draw, and whether the plant can provide compressed air, water inlet and drainage where the machine needs them. A fixed steam cleaning machine such as the PowerDe HW02 is listed at 220 V with a 6 kW heating load and a tap-water inlet, which is straightforward to plan for; a line-integrated cell with vacuum, heating and vision systems is not. Ask for the full utility list — power, water, drainage, exhaust, air — and check it against the room, not against a drawing of the room.
Floor loading, door and lift dimensions, and the turning radius of an aisle also belong in this pass. Non-standard frames are frequently too large to be split after manufacture, and a doorway discovered late becomes a machining and reassembly cost that nobody budgeted.
Match the machine footprint to the process it serves
Installation scope should be defined together with the process window: cycle time, product size range, changeover expectations, and whether operators load the cell by hand or through a conveyor. A cell sized for the part you make today must also clear the part you make next year, or the "non-standard" label quietly becomes an obsolescence risk.
Where the work involves cleaning, degreasing or surface preparation before assembly, the utility demands look closer to process plant than to a workstation. Buyers evaluating non-standard automation equipment for industrial steam cleaning equipment duties should ask specifically about water supply quality, tank capacity, drain routing, and how the machine handles wet-steam and dry-steam modes on the same nozzle. Those details determine whether plumbing is a simple connection or a civil works project.
Check the supplier's engineering and commissioning support
Non-standard equipment arrives as a project, not a parcel. Ask who performs on-site installation and commissioning, in which language, and how long the team stays. Then confirm what documentation comes with the machine: wiring diagrams, pneumatic layouts, spare-parts lists, and the parameters a maintenance technician needs after warranty. A supplier offering integrated engineering team services can usually cover site survey, installation supervision and operator training as one package, which removes the hand-off gaps where custom equipment most often stalls.
Shenzhen PowerDe Automation Precision Equipment Co., Ltd. describes its work as equipment R&D and manufacturing combined with system integration, customized configuration and technical support, so site conditions and utility limits should be shared at the quotation stage rather than at delivery.
Test the acceptance criteria before payment terms are fixed
Write the acceptance test as a list of measurable conditions: the parts and materials the machine must run, the cycle time to be demonstrated, the tolerances to be held, and the number of consecutive runs required. A factory acceptance test at the supplier's site catches faults cheaply; a site acceptance test at yours catches them expensively. Where a machine includes a heating, pressure or vacuum function, make the safety interlocks and protection functions part of the witnessed test, not an annex.
Finally, agree the spare-parts and service path while the machine is still new. Record the model designation exactly as the manufacturer publishes it, and keep the correspondence that defines what was supplied — custom equipment is often serviced years later by someone who never saw the original design discussion.
