Keep the wear parts that fail by design, such as screens, hammers, pins, belts, seals, heating elements and sealing jaws. Add the critical electrical and pneumatic parts whose failure would stop the whole line, especially if they take weeks to arrive from India.
Ask the maker for a recommended spares list with part numbers and suggested quantities for one and two years of running. Then adjust it for your own hours, products and shipping times.
Spare parts by category
- Wear parts: grinder hammers, pins and screens, sifter meshes, expeller worms and cage bars, conveyor belts, buckets and scraper blades.
- Consumables: filter bags and cartridges, filter press cloths, sealing tapes and strips, heater cartridges and cutting knives.
- Mechanical parts: bearings, couplings, chains, sprockets, V-belts and gearbox seals.
- Electrical parts: drives, sensors, proximity switches, temperature controllers, contactors, I/O cards and, where lead times are long, a spare HMI.
- Pneumatic parts: solenoid valves, cylinders, air filters and regulators, and the ejector valves on colour sorters.
- Machine-specific parts: forming collars, sealing jaws, cams, dosing cups, change parts and any part made to the maker's own drawing.
How to decide quantities
Rank each part by three questions. How likely is it to fail in a year? Would its failure stop the line? How long would a replacement take to reach you? A part that is likely to fail, stops the line and takes weeks to arrive should be on your shelf.
Shipping time is the key factor for Indian machines. Small parts can travel by courier or air, but customs clearance still adds days. Read how quickly spare parts can ship before you set your stock levels.
Standard parts such as bearings, belts and contactors can often be bought locally. Ask the maker to list the brand and international part number for each one, so your team can source equivalents nearby. Machine-specific parts usually come only from the maker, so stock more of them.
Buy spares with the machine
- Agree the spares list and quantities in the main contract, so the parts arrive with the machine.
- Ask for commissioning spares as well, for the parts most likely to wear or break during start-up.
- Have every spare labelled with its part number and the machine it belongs to.
- Ask for drawings of simple wear parts, so a local workshop can make them in an emergency.
- Check the spares at the factory inspection, before they are packed.
Electronics and software
Electronic parts rarely wear, but they fail suddenly. Keeping a spare drive or HMI is only useful if you also have the program and settings to load into it. Agree software deliverables as explained in PLC and automation brands.
Store electronic spares in a dry, cool place in their original packaging. Heat and humidity shorten their shelf life.
Next step
We check spares lists against the machine, inspect the parts before packing and make sure they ship with the order. To start, book a free sourcing review.