Technical translation services for machinery and industrial equipment
We translate the documentation that leaves the factory with your machine: operating and maintenance instructions, spare-parts catalogues, declarations of conformity, safety notices and the text on the control panel. Into more than 40 languages, with terminology that stays the same across product generations and years of updates.
The trigger is rarely a single document. It is usually the moment a new product line needs its manual in eleven languages, three years after the last translation, and nobody remembers which term was chosen for the emergency stop device. Keeping that continuity is the real job. The translation itself is the smaller part of the work.
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Operating instructions and technical documentation
An instruction manual is not running text. It is a structure of warnings, procedural steps, tables, wiring diagrams with legends and appendices that refer to one another. When a translation goes wrong, it almost always goes wrong at those joints: a cross-reference that was not updated, a hazard level that turned WARNING into CAUTION.
Formats we handle directly. We work in your source format, not in a Word copy of it. XML exported from a content management system such as Schema ST4 goes through translation as XML and comes back as XML with its IDs intact. The same applies to FrameMaker (MIF), InDesign (IDML), DITA, DocBook, XLIFF and MadCap Flare. If all you have is a PDF, we rebuild the layout in the target language – which costs more, and is why we always ask for the source file first.
Warnings and safety chapters. Signal words, pictogram labels and the hazard–consequence–avoidance sequence of ANSI Z535 and ISO 3864 are treated as fixed building blocks, not as text open to interpretation. In each target language we reproduce the signal-word hierarchy that is established there rather than translating it word for word.
Appendices. Dimension sheets, lubricant tables, tightening torques, fault-code lists and supplier documentation are where projects lose time. For supplier documents we first check whether the supplier already has the language version – more often than you would expect, which saves a whole sub-project. Everything that does need translating uses the same terminology base as the main manual, so the fault-code list carries the same component names as the chapter that refers to it. Before delivery, a second linguist revises every file. What we translate and in which formats is listed on our page on technical documentation translation. More on the method in translating operating instructions: terminology and translation memory.
From our work: for an engineering company specialising in technical documentation in southern Germany, we translated more than 340 projects between 2016 and 2023 – about 1.6 million words of operating and maintenance instructions, safety notices and HMI text for machinery manufacturers, from German into 29 target languages, in Phrase with the client’s own translation memory and term base.
EU Machinery Regulation 2023/1230 and declarations of conformity
The EU Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 applies from 20 January 2027 and replaces the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC. Three of its provisions affect your translation planning directly.
The Member State decides the language, not the manufacturer. Under Article 10(7), the instructions must be in a language that can be easily understood by users, as determined by the Member State concerned. In practice that means the official language of every market you ship to. A manufacturer selling into Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia needs three languages that are missing from many older documentation sets. Our guide to the EU Machinery Regulation lists the required language for every EU and EEA country.
Digital instructions are allowed – paper on request remains mandatory. Instructions may be supplied in digital form. If the user asks for paper at the time of purchase, the manufacturer must provide it free of charge within one month. That one-month window is what matters for planning: a language that has not been translated cannot be added properly in four weeks once layout, review and printing are included. See also digital operating instructions under the Machinery Regulation.
The declaration of conformity can be linked. Under Article 10(8), the instructions may give a web address or machine-readable code where the EU declaration of conformity can be found. The reference text is part of the instructions and is translated with them; the declaration itself should be available in the same languages. Details: EU declaration of conformity translation.
Exporting from the UK or the US? Our guide EU Machinery Regulation 2027: what UK and US exporters need to translate covers the language rule, British versus American source texts and the declaration of conformity; the EU language table is also available as a one-page PDF.
Spare-parts catalogues and software interfaces
Spare-parts catalogues have little text and a lot of structure: item numbers, order numbers, descriptions, bill-of-materials lines, exploded views with legends. What gets translated is the description column – and it has to match the name used in the manual and in your ERP system, otherwise a service engineer in Spain orders a part that does not exist under that name. We therefore take descriptions from the same term base that feeds the manual and deliver them in the format your catalogue system imports: Excel, CSV or XML.
For user interfaces the constraint is field length. A short German or English command becomes longer in Polish or Finnish and no longer fits the button. We work with character limits per string when you provide them, and flag the cases where no correct wording fits without abbreviation instead of silently shortening it. Formats: RESX, PO, JSON, properties files, XLIFF and CSV exports from PLC projects.
Terminology management
For every machinery client we maintain two assets: a term base with the approved term in each language, and a translation memory with every sentence translated so far. Both belong to you and are exported on request as TBX and TMX – including if you change supplier.
In practice this means the revision of a manual for the successor model is not a new project. Matching sections come from the memory and you pay only for what is new or changed. Our analysis before the quote shows the word count by match category, so you can see exactly what you are paying for. New terms are not decided inside the project: they go on a list for your engineers to approve before they enter the term base.
Industries we work in
Machinery and plant engineering
Machine tools, sheet-metal processing, pumps and valves, conveyor systems, packaging machinery, core-making and foundry equipment, process plants. Typical here is the large documentation structure: main manual plus supplier documentation plus installation-specific appendices.
Electrical engineering and automation
Control-cabinet documentation, terminal diagrams, PLC project text, drive and inverter manuals – with standardised designations (IEC 60617, EN 81346) that must not be translated freely.
Medical devices
Instructions for use, technical documentation and labelling under the MDR. Different regulation from machinery, the same demand for consistent terminology – and language requirements defined per Member State.
Automotive
Repair and workshop information, diagnostic text, supplier documentation and service training material.
Languages: we translate into more than 40 languages, including all official EU languages. For German source documentation see our German translation services.
How we work
Every project has a dedicated project manager who knows your terminology and your documentation structure. Translation is done by native-speaker translators with a background in the relevant technical field, and revised by a second linguist. Before delivery we check the layout in the target format – for DTP formats as a PDF proof – so that overflowing tables and cut-off legends are caught by us, not by you.
The company is registered in London; project management is based in Ljubljana, in the Central European time zone.
Frequently asked questions about technical translation
How much does technical translation cost?
We charge per source word; the rate depends on the language pair. For technical documentation, though, the word rate is rarely the decisive figure. What matters is how much of the document actually needs translating: sections that recur unchanged from an earlier manual come from the translation memory and are charged at a much lower rate. That is why we analyse your files before quoting and show the word count by match category.
Do operating instructions have to be translated under the Machinery Regulation?
Yes. Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, applicable from 20 January 2027, requires in Article 10(7) that instructions are provided in a language easily understood by users, as determined by the Member State concerned – in practice the official language of each market the machine is delivered to.
Which languages do you translate technical documentation into?
All official EU languages and more than 40 languages in total, including those most relevant for machinery exports: German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovenian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Portuguese, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
Do you use machine translation?
Where it makes sense and only with your agreement: for large, highly repetitive content, followed by full post-editing by a specialist translator. Not for safety chapters, warnings or conformity text. The quote states which part is handled how.
Our Process:
Our mission is to continually provide you with professional translation services in a timely and cost-effective manner.
