How to Choose a Technical Translation Company: 10 Questions Manufacturers Should Ask
The right technical translation company for a manufacturer keeps terminology, numbers and units identical across every language and every release, works in your original file formats and leaves the glossary and translation memory with you. DEMA Solutions recommends testing any supplier on those points before price, because they decide what every future manual costs.
Why choosing a technical translation company is different
A brochure translated badly costs you some credibility. A manual translated badly can cost you a recall, a rejected technical file or an injured technician. That is why the usual way of buying translation, comparing the price per word of three quotes, works poorly for technical documentation.
Technical content has three features that change the buying decision:
- It repeats. The same component, warning and procedure appear in dozens of manuals, catalogues and interface strings. A supplier who reuses approved content well gets cheaper and more consistent every year. One who does not starts from scratch every time.
- It is regulated. Instructions, safety information and declarations of conformity have to be in the user’s language. From 20 January 2027 the Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 sets the rules for machinery.
- It lives in complex files. DITA, XML, FrameMaker, InDesign, CAD callouts, software resource files. If the supplier cannot work in them, someone in your company ends up copying and pasting text.
Whether you search for a technical translation agency, a technical translation company or engineering translation services, you are buying the same thing: a process that keeps technical language under control across languages and years.
The 10 questions to ask before you choose
1. How do you keep terminology identical across languages and releases?
Ask to see how a component name moves from your glossary into a translated manual. A good answer covers an approved, multilingual glossary that translators must follow, automated checks that flag deviations, and a way for your engineers or dealers to approve new terms once, not in every project. A weak answer is “our translators are experts”. Expertise without a shared glossary still produces three names for the same valve. See how to keep technical terminology consistent across translators, suppliers and markets.
2. How do you check numbers, units and tolerances?
Numbers are where technical translations fail quietly. A decimal separator, a torque value or a unit converted when it should not have been reads perfectly well and is still wrong. Ask which checks run on numbers and units, at what stage, and who signs off. Automated checks should flag every mismatch between source and target, and a qualified reviser should be responsible for the result.
3. Who owns the translation memory and glossary, and can we export them?
Every sentence you pay to translate is stored in a translation memory. If that memory stays with the supplier, so does your accumulated investment, and changing supplier means paying again for content you already own in another language. Ask for a clear answer in writing: the memory and glossary are yours, in a standard exportable format, at any time. See who owns your translation memory.
4. Can you work in our original file formats?
Ask which formats the supplier handles directly: DITA and other XML, S1000D, FrameMaker, InDesign, Word, software strings. Ask what happens to tags, cross-references and images on the way back. If your source is a scanned or locked PDF, ask whether they can make it editable first, or whether you will be asked to do it. Every manual step between your file and the translation adds cost and errors.
5. Who lays out the translated manual?
Translated text is longer or shorter than the source, and some languages change direction. Callouts on exploded drawings, tables and warnings all have to fit. Ask whether layout is handled by an in-house desktop publishing team working in your original files, or passed to a third supplier you have to coordinate yourself.
6. How do you decide between human translation and machine translation?
Most technical translation now involves machine translation somewhere. The question is how it is controlled. Ask which content goes through machine translation post-editing, which stays human-led, who decides, and whether the engine follows your glossary and memory. Safety chapters and documents for a notified body should not be treated like a spare parts list. See when machine translation post-editing is good enough for technical documentation.
7. Who revises the translation, and against what?
Revision means a second qualified linguist compares the translation with the source, sentence by sentence. It is not the same as someone reading the target text for fluency. Ask whether revision is included for every document, which standard the process follows (ISO 17100 is the reference for translation services) and how they handle a complaint. See how to check a supplier’s quality before you hire them.
8. How do our engineers and dealers give feedback?
Your engineers and in-country dealers know the product better than any translator. The question is how their corrections reach the next release. Ask whether reviewers work in context, whether approved corrections update the glossary and memory, and how long it takes. If feedback arrives in an email with a marked-up PDF and disappears after the project, the same correction will be needed again.
9. Which documents do you translate for compliance, and do you know the requirements?
Ask the supplier to list the documents they translate for CE marking and the EU market: instructions for use, installation and maintenance manuals, safety warnings and labels, declarations of conformity, parts of the technical file. Ask what changes with the Machinery Regulation, such as digital instructions and the right of users to ask for a paper copy. A supplier who knows the context will ask you which markets you ship to before you tell them. See what EU rules require for user manual translation.
10. Will we have one contact who knows our products?
Technical translation goes better when the same project manager and the same linguists work on the same product families year after year. Ask who your contact will be, how linguists are assigned, and what happens when content arrives two days before shipment.
Three common shortcuts, and what they cost
"A generalist supplier is cheaper"
The price per word often is. The total cost usually is not. Without terminology control and good memory reuse, every manual is translated as if it were new, terms drift between versions, and your engineers spend time fixing them. The cheapest quote on the first manual is often the most expensive supplier by the fifth. See where the cost of technical manual translation really comes from.
"Our engineers can check the translation"
Engineers are the right people to approve terminology. They are rarely the right people to revise full manuals in a foreign language, and their time is expensive. A better use of their expertise: approve the glossary once, review new terms when they appear, and leave sentence-by-sentence revision to qualified linguists.
"Machine translation is good enough for technical text"
For some content, machine translation post-edited by a qualified linguist is the right choice. Raw machine output is not, for anything a customer, technician or authority will read. Machine output sounds fluent even when a negation is missing or a unit is wrong, which is exactly the error a safety instruction cannot afford.
A quick scorecard for comparing suppliers
Use this when you compare two or three technical translation companies. Ask each one for evidence, not a yes:
- Terminology: approved multilingual glossary, enforced with automated checks
- Numbers and units: systematic checks on every document, signed off by a reviser
- Ownership: translation memory and glossary yours, exportable in a standard format
- Formats: works in your original files, including XML, FrameMaker, InDesign and software strings
- Layout: in-house desktop publishing, no third supplier to coordinate
- Machine translation: decided per document type, controlled by your glossary and memory
- Revision: second qualified linguist on every document, ISO 17100 certified process
- Feedback: reviewer corrections update the glossary and memory
- Compliance: knows which documents need translating for CE marking and the Machinery Regulation
- Continuity: same project manager and linguists on your product families
A supplier who scores well here will usually cost less over three years than one who wins on the first quote.
How DEMA Solutions works with manufacturers
We have translated technical documentation for manufacturers for more than 20 years, with teams in Italy, Serbia and Spain. Our technical translation services follow an ISO 17100 certified process, with a second qualified linguist revising every translation, and cover the documents that ship with a machine: user and maintenance manuals, installation instructions, safety procedures, declarations of conformity, spare parts catalogues and interface texts.
What we focus on is the same list as above:
- Terminology and memory first. Before translation starts, we build or clean your glossary and translation memory, so every release begins with approved language.
- The right route per document. Specialist translators or controlled machine translation post-editing, depending on risk, volume and use.
- Systematic checks on terminology, numbers, tags and formatting, with human revisers responsible for meaning.
- Your formats, our layout. We work in DITA, S1000D, XML, FrameMaker, InDesign and Word, and our in-house DTP team lays out the translated files. If you only have PDFs, we can make them editable.
- Your assets. Translation memory, glossaries and term bases remain yours, in portable formats.
For technical document translation in the machinery sector specifically, see our manufacturing translation services.
Example: an industrial equipment manufacturer
One of our clients, an Italian manufacturer of industrial equipment, exports most of what it builds. New machines are often configurations of an existing platform, so much of each manual has already been translated for a previous variant. Today its documentation runs through one managed process: a dedicated project manager, a translation memory that recognises repeated content across machine variants, an approved glossary for component names, the same specialist linguists on the same product families, and layout by our DTP team. Read the industrial manufacturer case study.
“We have been working with DEMA for a few years now on the translation of manuals: they are a great partner, professional, fast, and efficient. Our native-speaking dealers have also praised the quality and accuracy of the translations.”
Michela R. ยท FMB S.r.l. ยท Italy
Where TUBE fits
For manufacturers who translate continuously, TUBE is our solution for keeping technical language under your control. Your glossary and translation memory control machine translation, every approved translation goes into a memory you own, and leverage reporting shows how much of each release comes from reuse.
Frequently asked questions
It translates documents such as manuals, technical specifications, safety information, catalogues and software texts, using specialist translators, terminology management, translation memory and quality checks, and usually delivers the result in the original file format.
The terms are used interchangeably. What matters is not the label but the process: terminology control, memory reuse, revision by a second linguist and the ability to work in your file formats.
Translation of engineering content such as specifications, drawings, calculations, test reports and technical files. The same selection criteria apply: subject-matter translators, approved terminology and systematic checks on numbers and units.
It depends on the volume of new content, how much is reused from your translation memory, the file formats and the level of review. Comparing the price per word alone is misleading, because reuse and rework change the real cost over several releases.
ISO 17100 sets requirements for the translation process, including qualified translators and revision by a second linguist. It is a useful minimum for technical documentation, though you should still ask how terminology and numbers are checked.
Yes, if you own the translation memory and glossary and can export them. Ask for both before you change, so the new supplier starts from your approved content instead of from zero.
For complex content, subject knowledge matters. In practice, an approved glossary, consistent linguists on your product families and a second qualified reviser do more for accuracy than a single translator's background.
Compare us against your current supplier
If you are choosing a technical translation company, or wondering whether your current one still fits, send us one of your manuals. We will tell you how we would handle its terminology, formats and memory, and what that means for your next release.
How can we help?
Tell us what you need and we’ll get back to you with the solutions.