Most switchgear enquiries start with a price comparison. That is the fastest way to compare three suppliers who are not offering the same thing. A quotation for a 1600 A board can differ by forty per cent between suppliers and both numbers can be correct, because one includes a tested design, copper busbar and Siemens devices, and the other does not.
These seven checks are the ones that decide whether a supplier can carry a project. They are also the questions a technical buyer asks anyway, so asking them early saves a round of emails.
1. Ask what is actually type tested
“Type tested” is used loosely. Ask for the report, and read the test items as well as the cover page. A report that covers insulation withstand is not the same as one that covers temperature rise and short-circuit making and breaking.
For low voltage assemblies, the design standard matters. GB/T 7251.3-2017 corresponds to IEC 61439-3 for distribution boards; IEC 61439-1 and -2 cover assemblies and power switchgear. A supplier who cannot tell you which part of the standard the report refers to has not read it either.
2. Check the standard against your specification
If your project specifies IEC 61439-2, a report issued against a national standard may still be relevant, but it is not the same document. Decide early whether national-standard documentation is acceptable, and say so in the enquiry. Finding out at tender stage costs a week; finding out at delivery costs a container.
3. Ask who assembles the equipment and where
Many exporters are traders, which is normal in this industry. What matters is that the answer is clear: which workshop, with what equipment, and who signs the test record. A supplier who can describe the assembly floor, the busbar machine and the test bench is a supplier who has been there.
4. Ask how components are sourced
Devices are where substitutions happen quietly. Ask for the device list to be part of the approved drawing, with brand and model, and for the packing list to match it. If a device is out of stock, you want to be asked, not informed at the port.
5. Test the engineering response
Send a single-line diagram with one deliberate gap (a missing fault level, an unlabelled feeder, an ambiguous cable entry) and see what comes back. A supplier who quotes anyway is quoting a guess. A supplier who returns three specific questions is reading the drawing.
6. Agree the documentation before the price
Ask what you will receive: GA drawing for approval, schematic, terminal list, device list, routine test record, type test copy, packing list. Ask for the language and the format. Documentation is cheap to agree at order stage and expensive to reconstruct afterwards.
7. Look at what the price includes
Crating, export packing, markings, documents, warranty and the terms of payment all sit inside the price somewhere. A quotation that omits packing is not cheaper; it is incomplete. Ask for the scope in writing, and ask what happens if the drawing changes after approval.
A short list to send with the enquiry
- Single-line diagram and load list
- Supply voltage, frequency and prospective fault current
- Required standard and whether type test documentation is needed
- IP rating and installation environment
- Approved component brands
- Cable entry direction and termination type
- Delivery port and required date
None of this is unusual. It is the same list a European panel builder would ask for, and it is the reason a well-prepared enquiry usually gets a usable answer within a day or two.