When a Simple Part Breaks on an Overseas Machine

The machine was designed in Hamburg, Herzogenrath, Seoul or the United States. It has been running in Penang or Kulim for years, and nobody on site still knows who designed the guard. Then a bracket cracks. Or a cover no longer fits, because the floor was repaired and the cover was made for the old floor. Or a chute wears through on an ordinary afternoon.

The line stops. The manufacturer's office may be closed for the night, their spare-parts desk wants a serial number, and nobody had budgeted for this part.

Why simple parts take so long

New factories around Penang are full of machines that were designed elsewhere, by engineers who are far away. Announcements made in 2026, such as Eppendorf's instrument factory, Aixtron's plans for deposition equipment and new Korean test facilities in Perak, show the pattern. We have no connection with these companies. We mention them only because they show where maintenance work is heading over the next ten years.

Each machine starts under warranty. When the warranty ends and something breaks, it is often a simple part: a guard, a bracket, a tray or a small frame. It is rarely the complex mechanism that the manufacturer designs and supports most closely.

The manufacturer will still be the official source of spare parts, but ordering from them can take a week or even a month. The drawings, the engineers and the stock are overseas, and the part is unlikely to be waiting in stock. In most cases, this wait causes far more delay than import duties or customs paperwork.

What a local workshop can and cannot do

A local workshop can make a copy of a simple part, using the broken part, measurements and photographs. What it cannot do is take the place of the manufacturer.

The two parts are different. The manufacturer's spare part carries their part number and their approval. Our part fits the opening and does the job you describe. If your insurer, your customer or the machine's warranty requires the manufacturer's own part, please order it from them. If the line simply needs a part that fits by Friday, tell us. Either way, we will not put the manufacturer's name on our work.

A spare part is not a prototype

Both jobs are usually for a single piece, so people often treat them the same way. They need different briefs.

A prototype is a trial. The shape is still being decided, and you tell the workshop which features may change. A spare part is for a machine that is already running. It is either an exact copy of the original, or a copy with one change to suit the machine as it is now. That change might clear a raised floor, or a sensor added later. For more on how those briefs differ, see One-off, prototype and repeat work.

So your first email must say which version the new part should match.

• The machine as originally approved. Send the broken part or the approved drawing, and ask us not to change anything.
• The machine as it is today. Send a photograph of whatever is now in the way, and tell us which features, such as a hole position, may move.

This choice matters. If we improve a part without being asked, it may not fit the manufacturer's assembly the next time their engineers service the machine. If we copy the old drawing exactly after the floor has changed, the bracket will match the drawing but not the machine. Please make the choice in writing, in your first email.

What to send us

The most useful thing is the broken part itself, sent by courier, with a note saying where it cracked and which faces must meet the machine. The next best is a set of photographs with a tape measure in view, plus the manufacturer's drawing if you are permitted to share it. A serial number alone does not help us. We do not have the manufacturer's catalogue, so we cannot work out the shape from a part number.

Please include:

• The shape: the broken part, photographs with a tape measure, or a drawing. A description from memory is not enough.
• What must stay the same: the holes that bolt to the machine, the side the hinge is on, and any edge that must seal.
• What may change: extra room for a new pipe, a foot that must avoid a repaired floor, or a thickness you have decided to increase.
• The material, if known: if you do not know the grade, tell us whether the original was stainless steel or painted steel, and describe the conditions it works in.
• The deadline: when the line needs the part, and whether a rough first piece tomorrow would help more than a finished one next week.

Everything in What a fabricator needs to quote still applies. A spare part adds just two things: the broken part, and a clear statement of what may change. Without that statement, we may copy the fault exactly, or design a new bracket that you have not had time to approve.

Who can approve the new part

During installation, a project engineer usually approved each part on the drawing. After a breakdown, the approver is whoever can look at the line and confirm that the guard is back in place. Please tell us who that person is.

If only someone overseas can approve a change, and they will not reply until tomorrow, a local repair will not save much time. You would still be waiting for the manufacturer, with an extra step added. In that case, please order from them directly rather than have us make a part that then waits for approval.

If the approver is on your site, a photograph of the new part held against the machine is usually enough. We can send that photograph on the day the part is made. Because we are in Penang, our working day matches yours, so questions do not have to wait overnight.

What we will not do

We will not mark our part as the manufacturer's, and we cannot tell you whether your warranty still applies. We work on simple sheet-metal parts: guards, brackets, chutes, trays and small frames. We will not try to reproduce a complex mechanism from a photograph of its cover.

Gearboxes, electrical parts and assemblies that must be set to a measured value should go back to the manufacturer, even if the line is stopped. A wrong part of that kind causes more trouble than the wait.

Send us the simple part, and tell us whether you want an exact copy or a copy with one written change.