A project brief for slit coating equipment is the document a manufacturer uses to quote, design and build the machine. If the brief is vague, the supplier fills the gaps with assumptions, and those assumptions surface later as change orders, a machine that cannot run the intended process window, or a line that does not match the room it is installed in. A good brief does not need to read like an engineering drawing. It needs to state, in plain language, what you coat, on what, how fast, in what environment, and how the machine will be bought, installed, commissioned and supported.
1. The material system and the layer you intend to coat
Start with the coating liquid itself, because slit coating transfers a liquid pressed through a gap onto a moving substrate, and every property of that liquid shapes the hardware. State the solvent or carrier, whether the slurry is abrasive or contains solids, and how the material behaves over time in an open reservoir. Slurries that settle need agitation or a recirculating supply tank; materials that dry quickly need a supply loop that can be flushed during a stoppage; low-viscosity liquids need different metering and different gap control than thick pastes.
Then define the layer: target wet and dry thickness, allowable thickness variation across the width, whether you run a single layer or several stacked layers, and whether the same machine must later coat a second material. On the PowerDe slit coating equipment listing for this series, the published coating thickness range is 5-200 um and the coating width range is 50-350 mm. Quote the thickness you need, and also say whether your sample run will sit at the top or the bottom of that range, because coating at the edge of a window is a different engineering problem from coating in the middle of it.
2. The substrate and how it enters and leaves the machine
Substrate description is where most briefs become concrete enough to design from. State the material (glass, metal foil, polymer film), the thickness, the width, and the length or roll diameter, plus whether the substrate is rigid or flexible and how flat it is when it arrives. A thin film that curls, wrinkles or carries static behaves differently under a coating head than a rigid plate.
State the feed format. The PowerDe series is listed with a 3-inch inflatable shaft as the rewinding element, so say early in the brief whether your cores match that bore or whether you need an adapter or a different chuck. Then describe the rest of the web path in words: unwind, tension control, web cleaning, pre-treatment such as corona or plasma, the coating head, the oven, and the rewinding station. If a station already exists on your side and the machine only has to hand the web over at a defined point, write that down instead of paying for a station you do not need.
Finally give the pass rate you expect and the scrap rule you will be judged on. The PowerDe specification lists a product pass rate of at least 99.5%. If your internal target is different, or if you intend to accept a lower yield during process development and raise it at production, say so — the supplier needs to know which stage the machine is being bought for.
3. Speed, format size and throughput target
Give the line speed you want and the speed you can accept. The equipment speed on this series can be set from 1 to 10 m per minute. Do not just write the highest figure; a speed that works for one formulation on one substrate may not hold once the process window narrows. A brief that says "3 m/min for development, target 8 m/min for production, uniformity first" lets the supplier size the oven and the head for the real goal.
Also state format and volume: the size of the pieces or the roll length you run, the batch or shift pattern, and the throughput in square metres or pieces per day. Ovens are usually the constraining element, not the coating head. The PowerDe specification lists oven length as a project parameter rather than a single fixed value, so give the line space available for the oven and the drying time your material actually needs, including solvent removal, so the drying zone can be sized to match.
4. Process conditions: drying, atmosphere and safety
Describe what happens to the coating after it leaves the head: target temperature profile, whether heating is electric, what has to be done with the evaporated solvent, and whether the oven must be segmented into zones. The PowerDe listing gives the heating method as electric and lists a machine footprint of 2540 mm x 800 mm x 1650 mm with a listed equipment pressure of 6 kg/cm, with the oven length carried as a separate project parameter. Where a unit or a value on a datasheet is ambiguous, ask the manufacturer to confirm it in writing rather than repeating it into your own specification; that protects both sides during acceptance testing.
Then cover the room. State whether the coating has to happen in ambient air, a controlled dry room, or an inert atmosphere inside a glove box. If your material is moisture or oxygen sensitive, say plainly whether the coating head, the oven, or the whole line needs to sit inside an enclosure. This is also the place for the plant facts that decide installation cost: available power, compressed-air supply, floor area and door widths, ceiling height, floor loading, and any exhaust or solvent-handling rule that applies at your site. If your material is hazardous, write down the flash point and any ventilation or explosion-protection requirement instead of leaving the supplier to discover it during commissioning.
5. Control system, data and recipes
Say who will operate the machine and how. A line run by process engineers who change parameters daily needs a different control layout from one run by operators who only select a saved recipe. State the control platform you prefer or already support, the parameters you want logged, and whether you need per-batch records for traceability. Recipe management matters more than most buyers expect: the ability to store a formulation, a speed, a gap and a temperature profile as one named recipe is what makes a repeatable run.
State the alarms and the maintenance aids you want. The PowerDe specification lists a three-colour warning light for fault prompting and an adjustable deviation-correcting device. Specify the alarms you care about — web break, coating liquid level low, oven temperature out of range — and say whether you want downtime and parameter data exportable for your own analysis.
6. Process samples before the order
Build sampling into the brief rather than treating it as an afterthought. Ask for coated samples on your own substrate with your own material, and define what you will measure on them: thickness at several points across and along the web, defect types, adhesion, and appearance. Ask how long the samples take and what they cost. If you already have pilot data, attach it. A brief that includes your own trial results converts the discussion from "what can the machine do" to "can this machine hit my numbers", which is the question that decides the purchase.
7. Acceptance testing, spare parts and service
Define acceptance before you sign. Write the test conditions and the pass criteria into the brief: which speed, which substrate, which material, which thickness, how long the machine must run continuously, and how uniformity and pass rate will be measured. If you intend to accept the machine at the supplier's site first and then again after installation, say so.
Then state what keeps the machine running after delivery: the wear parts on the head and seals, the spare-parts list with prices, the delivery time for critical parts, the warranty period, how a fault is reported, and whether an engineer can attend your site or whether support starts with remote diagnosis and video. Also state your commissioning plan — who provides utilities and setup, how long you can take the line out of service, and what training your staff need.
8. Budget, schedule and how the quote will be compared
Give a budget range and a required date, and say what the date means: a machine that is merely delivered, or one that is running samples on your site. Then require a quotation format that lets you compare suppliers honestly — a bill of materials for the coating head, pump, oven and control system; what is included and excluded; options priced separately; installation, commissioning and training shown as separate lines.
The thin-film solar equipment range on this site covers more than coating. The same series is listed as specialised R&D equipment for perovskite solar cells, OLED, lithium battery, quantum-dot LED and OPV applications. If your programme may move from R&D batches to pilot production, or if you plan to pair coating with adjacent steps such as glove box spin coating equipment or roll-to-roll magnetron sputtering coating machine processes, put that roadmap in the brief. It changes which options you should price now instead of retrofitting later.
A ready-to-use brief structure
Write the brief as numbered sections that match the list above, one page per section at most. For each item give a value, a range, or an explicit "to be confirmed with supplier" note — the third option is honest and cheap; silence is expensive. Close the document with a short table: material system, substrate and feed format, target thickness and uniformity, target speed and throughput, environment and safety constraints, oven and line space available, control and data requirements, sampling plan, acceptance criteria, spare parts and service expectations, budget range and required date. Send that table to every supplier on your list. You will get comparable quotations, and the gaps in your own plan will become visible before the order, not after it.
When you are ready to talk to a manufacturer, send PowerDe your brief with the material and substrate details attached, and ask them to confirm the published parameters against your numbers before you sign.
