Most RFQ delays on cleaning equipment start with the request, not the supplier: fields left out force the reply to carry assumptions instead of numbers. The fix costs one pass through the form — send the seven fields below, and the quote that returns is a configuration, not a brochure.
This checklist is not generic procurement advice. It is an audit of the RFQ form CHUANGQI itself runs at chuangqitech.com/contact.html: seven visitor-facing fields, a product dropdown preloaded with 22 product options, and a requirements prompt that names five concrete inputs. Counted against what a quotation actually contains, five of those seven fields decide the technical half of the price — the machine family, the chamber and utilities, the batch-versus-inline configuration, the shipping scope and the OEM context. The remaining two exist so the reply reaches you.
Key takeaways
- Five of the seven RFQ fields decide the technical half of the quote.
- The product dropdown preloads 22 product options; pick the nearest match.
- Workpiece size and utilities fix chamber, pump and water specs before price matters.
- A 24-hour quote assumes complete input on day one, not faster typing.
- Unknown contamination is the one thing no RFQ can fix — send a sample board instead.
The seven fields, and what each one decides
Each row below states what the quote team does with the field and what a complete entry looks like. Entries carrying real dimensions come from published machine data, not from guesses.
| Field | What it decides in the quote | Example of a complete entry |
|---|---|---|
| Product | Anchors the machine family; the dropdown carries 22 product options, and custom builds start from the nearest one | “Inline PCBA Water Cleaning Machine — CQ-C9610” (or the closest match) |
| Requirements | The heavy field: what you clean, largest workpiece, daily volume, inline or offline, utilities on site | “Stencil frames to 736 × 736 mm, about 30 per shift, compressed air on site” (frames beyond 736 × 736 mm are a custom build, not the standard machine) |
| Quantity | Batch versus inline, fixture counts, and whether a second unit changes the configuration | “1 unit now; second line planned for next year” |
| Company | Sets the OEM/ODM context: branding, documentation language, audit expectations | “EMS provider, 4 SMT lines, private-label packaging” |
| Country | Shipping scope and the documentation set that travels with the machine | “Vietnam, plant near Hanoi” |
| Name and email | No spec weight; they decide whether the 24-hour reply reaches a person who can decide | Direct line to the process owner, not a shared inbox |
Source: CHUANGQI RFQ form audit, 2026-10-27. The two dimension examples trace to published specification pages: the inline machine for printed circuit board assemblies (PCBA) takes workpieces up to 580 × 450 × 80 mm, and stencil cleaning covers frames to 736 × 736 mm. A workpiece larger than the documented envelope does not get a bigger quote — it gets a different machine family, which is exactly the kind of redirection that is cheap on day one and expensive after the purchase order.
Why the 24-hour quote depends on what you send
CHUANGQI commits to answering every request within 24 hours, and that promise is only realistic when the input arrives complete. The requirements prompt on the form asks for five specifics — what you need to clean, the largest workpiece, daily volume, inline or offline, and the utilities on site (power, compressed air, DI water). Those five inputs are the difference between a reply that carries a configuration and a reply that carries three questions.
The utilities line deserves its own sentence. A washer is sized around the water and air the plant actually has: our datasheets carry these as specification lines — the inline machine lists DI-water inflow and consumption, the batch machine lists compressed air and DI-drain filtration. If the RFQ leaves utilities blank, the quote gets written around assumptions, and a machine sized for the wrong supply becomes a commissioning problem months later. (If your plant has no DI-water system yet, say so — it changes which machine family gets quoted, not whether you get an answer.)
What the requirements field cannot carry is uncertainty about the soil itself. If nobody in the plant can say which residue is causing rejects, no quotation can promise a cleaning result — any supplier who promises one from a text field is guessing. That gap is what the free sample test exists for: you send boards; what comes back is a cleaning report, before-and-after footage and a machine recommendation, with no purchase obligation. The RFQ narrows the machine; the sample test proves the process.
What an RFQ cannot fix
Being explicit about limits saves both sides a round trip:
- Unknown contamination — not solvable in a form. Describe the flux and the defect, or send a sample; a quotation built on an unnamed residue is a family brochure with a letterhead.
- “Propose everything” requests — if the requirements field says only “recommend a machine”, the reply has to assume volume, board size and utilities. Expect a range, not a number (and expect the second reply to take as long as the first should have).
- Specs copied from another brand’s datasheet — a quote can be matched to your inputs, but it cannot answer for numbers a different manufacturer published.
One of these limits is worth restating from the buyer’s chair: a thin RFQ does not fail loudly. It comes back quickly, looking complete, with the assumptions hidden inside the price. The seven fields exist so that nothing important has to be assumed.
Is a quantity estimate required in an RFQ?
No. “1 unit” is a complete answer, and it is a common one. Volume matters mainly for the batch-versus-inline decision and for fixture counts, so a first-unit inquiry with a rough annual volume estimate already gives the quote team what it needs.
Do I need board drawings before asking for a quote?
No. The largest workpiece dimensions and the board construction are enough to size a chamber. Drawings matter later, when a specific board goes through sample testing or when fixtures are designed.
What if I don’t know whether I need inline or batch?
State the daily volume in boards per shift and leave the choice open; the reply can carry both configurations with the crossover point explained. This is a normal state to be in at RFQ stage, not a mistake.
How quickly should a supplier reply to an RFQ?
CHUANGQI’s own commitment is a reply within 24 hours per request. If a request sits unanswered for days, the cause is usually on the input side — the fields above are what makes a 24-hour answer possible.
Can I ask for more than one configuration in one RFQ?
Yes — two machines named in one RFQ come back as two recommendations in one reply: name a stencil cleaner and a PCBA washer together, and there are no two separate email threads to reconcile.
Ready to test the checklist against a real reply? Send the seven fields with a machine pre-selected from the full product range — for conveyor-line PCBA cleaning, start at the inline PCBA water cleaning machine and the quote comes back with a configuration inside 24 hours. For the wording of the request itself, the companion guide to writing an RFQ for a cleaning machine covers structure and tone; if you would rather prove the process before pricing it, the free sample cleaning test shows what to send.