Hydraulic Guillotine Shear: Buying Notes

Whatever the listing calls it — guillotine, gantry, or both —the buying notes for the portal-frame machine with the vertically driven blade are the same, and they are the notes that decide whether the machine fits. This article is the purchasing checklist for that machine, written for the buyer who has settled the vocabulary and now has to settle the specification. Every item on it is a quotation conversation rather than a catalog row.

For the terminology itself, read the vocabulary guide; for the full framework, the buying guide covers every class.

Note One: The Material List Is the Specification

Everything on the quotation follows one input: what actually arrives at your yard. Not the grade name — the list. The three heaviest pieces from a normal month with their cross-sections. The plate thickness that shows up weekly. Whether concrete adherence is routine or occasional. What proportion arrives baled.

The force class, the blade configuration and steel grade, the hold-down specification and the box or tank geometry are all quoted against that list. A quotation that arrives without asking for it is a price sheet, not a specification — and the machine that follows will be a compromise between jobs rather than the right tool for yours.

Note Two: The Duty Declaration Changes the Build

A machine quoted for single shifts is not the build quoted for three. Frame specification, hydraulic package, cooling capacity, wear-liner strategy and the spares kit all follow the shift pattern you declare, and the difference is invisible on a price sheet and obvious in year three.

Declare the duty you actually run, not the duty you aspire to. The operation that grows into its machine keeps it for a decade; the operation that buys for a duty it does not run yet fights the machine until the duty arrives — and sometimes the duty never does.

Note Three: The Boundary Rows Decide the Class

Force rating is the badge; the boundary rows are the machine. Every class publishes a continuous rating — the daily diet — and an occasional rating — what the week allows. Size the routine feed to the continuous rating and the machine holds its numbers; size it to the occasional rating and you get half the published blade life on the same machine.

The ladder of published boundaries, from the entry class to the flagship:

Class	Output band	Continuous / occasional
Q91-200	20–40 t/day	Light duty / ~60 mm sections
Q91-315	25–45 t/day	30 mm / 50 mm
Q91-400	35–55 t/day	40 mm / 55 mm
Q91-500	45–60 t/day	50 mm / 65 mm
Q91-630	60–80 t/day	60 mm / 80 mm
Q91-1000	100–120 t/day	100 mm / 130 mm
Q91-1250	160–200 t/day	120 mm / 150 mm
Q91-1600	200–240 t/day	150 mm / 190 mm
Q91-2000	250–300 t/day	170 mm / 210 mm

Where you land is decided by the heavy tail of your material distribution, not the average — count heavy pieces per month rather than averaging tonnage, and size for the frequency, not the exception.

Note Four: The Site Conversation Happens Before the Build

Four site items get confirmed in writing before the machine is built, because none of them can be adapted afterwards without compromise:

• Power. Available voltage and frequency, spare kilowatts, and the starting method — agreed with your electrician, not discovered on delivery day. Generator and diesel packages are configured at quotation where the site needs them.
• Foundation. Drawings to your contractor the week the order is placed, with anchorage matched to the declared duty rather than to the brochure.
• Route. The physical path the machine travels into the yard, confirmed with crate dimensions in hand rather than at the port.
• Flows. Material in, cut scrap out, and where the cut pieces accumulate. A machine whose output piles up under the box spends half its shift waiting, and no specification row warns you about it.

Note Five: What Ships With the Machine

The commercial package is part of the specification, not an afterthought. CE and ISO 9001 certification and factory load testing before shipment; a one-year warranty with extended main-frame coverage available per order; a documentation pack with schematics and foundation drawings; commissioning support with test runs on your material and operator training; and spare blades shipped within 48 hours by DHL or FedEx. At heavy duty the spares plan — what ships, what sits on your shelf, and the replacement procedure for each wear part — is part of the quotation conversation rather than a post-delivery discovery.

Send the material list, the duty declaration, the site items and the downstream stage, and the written quotation comes back within two business days with the specification sheet your electrician and foundation contractor can work from. If the honest answer is a different class, the quotation will say so.

The Verification Steps

Before the deposit, four verifications separate a factory from a brochure, and all four are reasonable to ask for. First, the test procedure: how the machine is load-tested before shipment, and whether the test record ships with the documentation pack. Second, the steel: what material certificates exist for the frame and the blades, and whether they are available on request. Third, the references: installations at a comparable duty you can speak to or visit, in a comparable market. Fourth, the documentation drafts: invoice, packing list and certificates available with the quotation so your broker can classify early rather than late.

A factory that answers all four without hesitation is describing a real build process. A factory that deflects on any of them is describing an aspiration — and at this purchase size, the deflection is the answer.

The Sequence of the Specification

The five notes in this article have an order, and the order matters. Material list first, because every other decision follows it. Duty declaration second, because the build follows it. Boundary rows third, because they pick the class. Site items fourth, because they are fixed before the build and cannot be adapted afterwards. And the commercial package fifth, because it is the part of the specification buyers are tempted to negotiate first and should confirm last. Buyers who run the sequence in order arrive at a quotation they can build from; buyers who start at the price arrive at a negotiation about a machine nobody has specified yet.

The Commercial Package, Read

The last note is the one buyers negotiate first and should confirm last. The commercial package is part of the specification, and it reads as follows: CE and ISO 9001 certification with factory load testing before shipment; a one-year warranty with extended main-frame coverage available per order; a documentation pack with schematics and foundation drawings your contractors can build from; commissioning support with test runs on your material and operator training across shift teams; and spare blades shipped within 48 hours by DHL or FedEx, with the shelf set sized to your declared duty. If a quotation is silent on any of those, the silence is the specification conversation that has not happened yet.

The Order, Restated

The buying notes reduce to an order of operations, and the order is the article. Material list first — it is the specification everything else follows. Duty declaration second — the build follows it. Boundary rows third — they pick the class. Site items fourth — they are fixed before the build. Commercial package fifth — confirm it last, negotiate it never-first. Run the order and the quotation that comes back is a document your contractors can build from and your operation can run for a decade. Run it backwards and you are negotiating the price of a machine nobody has specified.

Buyer FAQ

What is the single most important input to the quotation?

The material list — the three heaviest pieces from a normal month, the weekly plate thickness, and whether adherence or baling is routine. Every build decision follows it.

How do I choose between two adjacent classes?

Count heavy pieces per month. Weekly heavy events size for the heavier class; monthly ones keep the lighter class viable with the right blade configuration.

Can the machine be configured after delivery?

Configuration is fixed before the build — power package, blade length, tank geometry. Adaptation afterwards means compromise, which is why the site conversation happens at quotation.

What documentation should the quotation include?

The specification sheet your electrician and foundation contractor can build from: voltage, frequency, spare kilowatts, starting method, and the foundation data with anchorage matched to the declared duty.

How quickly does a quotation come back?

Within two business days of the material list, duty declaration and site details — factory direct, with the specification sheet attached and the honest class recommendation in writing. Run the order as written and the quotation that comes back is a document your operation can run for a decade. The commercial package confirmed last is the package that arrives complete; confirmed first, it is the package that gets negotiated against a machine nobody has specified.