I bought a Chinese machine and nobody came to install it: how to get it running anyway

November 2, 2026  ·  Indumor

1 Base and leveling · 2 Power · 3 Compressed air · 4 Water or gas · 5 First start.

Two strapped wooden crates, a pallet with the control cabinet wrapped in plastic and a smaller bundle of hoses and bolts. That is what the truck unloaded in the yard one Thursday afternoon, and there it sat for three weeks under a tarp. The supplier had said a technician would come once everything was ready. Then the technician was on another job. Then the messages stopped, and the plant manager was left with eleven tons of iron, a manual in strange English and one question. So who switches it on?

It gets switched on anyway. This is the order we follow when we are called in to finish what the seller left half done.

Before anything moves

Open every crate and count against the packing list, with photos. Missing items, dents, a cracked sensor, a cable cut by the strapping. All of that gets claimed in the first few days or never. Look for the shipping brackets, painted red or yellow, and remove them before moving any axis or table. The anti-rust grease on the ways comes off with solvent and rags, and only then do you lubricate. Boring work. Whatever you skip here, you pay for later.

Foundation, leveling and utilities

The machine needs a base that will neither settle nor vibrate. A concrete slab, anchor bolts where the foundation drawing puts them and grout under the feet if the maker requires it. Level it with a precision level; on a machine tool that means 0.02 to 0.04 mm per meter.

Then the utilities. Read the nameplate before you connect anything. Argentina's grid is 3 × 380 V at 50 Hz, the same as China's, but plenty of machines are built for other markets and arrive wired for 220 V or for 440 V at 60 Hz. A 60 Hz motor running on 50 Hz turns 17 % slower and can overheat; with a drive, you compensate at the drive. Phase sequence, neutral and protective earth, and a supply panel with residual-current and thermal protection as the Argentine wiring rules (AEA 90364) require. Compressed air has to arrive dry and filtered at 6 to 8 bar, and the threads may be G or NPT, so check before buying fittings. Water or gas, at the flow and pressure on the nameplate.

Oil, manual and cold checks

Almost all of them ship without hydraulic oil. The one the manual asks for is usually called L-HM 46, which is an ordinary ISO VG 46 from any brand. Gearboxes filled, grease points done, and the manual read from cover to cover however badly translated, because the start-up sequence and the alarms are in there. Before applying power, measure each motor's insulation with a megohmmeter. With the coupling open, bump each motor to check the direction of rotation. Only then do you couple it and run it unloaded, listening. Load comes last, a little at a time.

Who does it, and what to demand from the one who never came

A fabrication shop handles the base, the mechanical installation, the platforms and whatever needs adapting. A licensed electrician handles the panel and the connections. And the supplier, even without traveling, still owes you things. The wiring diagram, the parameter list, a backup of the PLC program with its password, and a video call in their time zone, eleven hours ahead of Argentina. Ask for it in writing. At Indumor we have finished installations like this more than once.

Before starting, it is worth going through what to check on a machine that has been standing idle and the list of what usually goes missing with Chinese machinery. If the machine is coming from another plant as well, the guide on machinery bought from another company covers the move.

Every week it stays under the tarp is a week of production that does not come back, and the loan falls due regardless. If it is in Córdoba or nearby, send us photos of the crates and the nameplate, and within two days you will have a list of what it takes to get it running.

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