Why the Quote Lists Condition on Every Single Line

The direct answer

An independent industrial automation distributor lists condition on every line of the quote because each unit is sourced and tested on its own. A 40-line BOM with two rows of new surplus, three of refurbished, one of used pulled from a working panel is a normal request; a flat answer ("all surplus" or "all refurbished") would obscure which row was bench-tested for ten minutes and which was pulled, cleaned, and visually inspected. As an independent China-based industrial automation distributor and sourcing desk, we record condition per line because that is the only honest way a buyer in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, or Stuttgart can compare what they would actually receive.

What a flat quote hides

A line item on a quote represents one physical unit. Two units of the same Yaskawa Sigma-7 part number can have travelled completely different paths before reaching the desk:

one may have come out of a sealed factory carton that was overstocked when a panel builder's order was cancelled
one may have been pulled from a working CNC cabinet during a 2024 retrofit, with documented hours on the encoder and drive
one may have been recovered from a decommissioned servo cabinet, cleaned, and load-tested on a bench

The part numbers are identical. The price differences, the warranty differences, the bench-test record differences, and the expected service-life differences are not. A quote that writes a Sigma-7 SERVOPACK part number with a quantity and no condition column has flattened information that the buyer needs to make a procurement decision. The Yaskawa Sigma-7 catalogue runs across the SGD7S SERVOPACK family (rotary servo), the SGM7J / SGM7G / SGM7A motor families, and the MP3300iec motion controller. To make the discussion concrete: an SGD7S-R90A00A on one quote, an SGD7S-1R6A00A on a second, and an SGD7S-2R8A00A on a third can each be new surplus, refurbished, or used depending on the channel; an SGM7J-02AFA21 or SGM7G-13AFA21 motor alongside it carries the same condition label independently. The same part-number string can refer to a 2022 new-surplus unit, a 2019-decommissioned refurbished unit, or a 2023 panel-pull used unit, and the condition column is where those three stories diverge.

This is also why a single line that looks interchangeable can quietly fail at commissioning. We have seen a buyer request twenty "identical" servo packs and assume they would all bench-pass. In practice, of the twenty, eighteen were tested clean, one had an encoder alarm on the first 30 minutes of the run, and one had a power-connector pin that needed replacement before energising. The condition column on each line carried the warning the buyer needed.

How condition is assigned at the desk

The condition written on a quote is not a guess. It comes out of a small set of steps performed before the part is even placed on the quotation:

Source identification — which channel did the unit arrive from (factory overstock, working-panel pull, decommissioned cabinet, board-level recovery, broker lot). The source itself narrows the likely condition.
Visual inspection — housing, labels, connector pins, capacitor tops, board solder mask, any signs of repair work or rework.
Label and marking check — manufacturer label, date code where readable, CE/UL marks, firmware version sticker, revision letter, and serial number against the manufacturer's documented format.
Power-on and diagnostic check — for powered devices (servo drives, PLCs, HMIs), a controlled bench energise with current limit, then the manufacturer's diagnostic or status read.
Functional spot-check where feasible — for a servo pack, a no-load motor spin; for a PLC CPU, a status LED sweep and a small program run; for an HMI, a touch calibration and backlight test.
Photograph record — a pre-dispatch photograph file captured at the time of the test, kept against the line item so a buyer can request the photos before payment.

The condition label written on the quote is the summary of these steps. The photograph and bench-test file, when taken, is the underlying evidence.

What the three words mean on a line

Three words show up on quotes from independent desks, and they are not interchangeable. Mixing them is the most common reason a buyer is surprised by a delivery.

New surplus — a factory-sealed unit that has never been energised in a working panel. Either it left the manufacturer and never reached an end user, or it was returned before installation. The carton may or may not be present, but the unit is unused. Date codes on new surplus can be years old; the part number is the same.
Refurbished — a unit that was working when pulled, then cleaned, inspected, and bench-tested. Refurbishment has a record behind it: the bench test, the diagnostic result, and any replaced consumables. A refurbished drive carries a bench record, not just a label.
Used — a unit pulled from working equipment and offered without a bench test. The unit was running when removed; what state it is in is not verified beyond power-on and visual inspection. Used is the honest label for a unit we are not bench-qualifying.

The same Yaskawa SGM7J motor can appear as new surplus, as refurbished, or as used on three different lines of three different quotes, depending on which channel it came from. The part number does not tell the buyer; the condition column does.

When the condition column is the most important column

Three buyer situations make the condition column the deciding factor rather than the price column:

A machine-down urgent replacement. A packaging line is stopped; the buyer needs to know not just that a unit is available, but whether it will pass the first energise. A used line is not a reliable answer here unless the buyer has the bench-test file in hand and is willing to accept the variance. Refurbished with a bench record is a more conservative answer. New surplus with a date code older than five years is acceptable for many machines but not for all.

A safety-related circuit. Buyers sometimes ask whether a used or refurbished safety relay can be substituted into a working safety chain. The condition column is where the desk records the limit: refurbished safety devices are bench-tested for power-on but not recertified to a SIL or PL rating. The buyer — and only the buyer, through their own qualification process — decides whether a supplier-qualified used or refurbished safety device is acceptable for the chain. We do not, and the line item does not claim to, substitute the buyer's qualification process.

A multi-unit line where every unit must work. A line builder placing twenty servo packs expects twenty working packs. The condition column is where the desk records the variation between units; if six lines are refurbished from a decommissioned cabinet and fourteen are new surplus, the buyer wants to see that before commissioning rather than after.

Where the line-by-line disclosure stops

A few honest limits apply to the condition label. They are written into the quote and they should be read before the order is confirmed.

The condition label is the desk's classification, not a manufacturer certification. A refurbished drive carries the desk's bench record — what was tested, what passed, what was replaced. It does not carry a manufacturer's warranty, a manufacturer's certificate of conformity, or a re-issue of the original date code. We are an independent distributor, not an authorized distributor; the line is offered on the desk's record, and the warranty terms on the quote are written by the desk, not by the original manufacturer.

The condition column does not verify against the original manufacturer datasheet. A buyer who needs the ambient air temperature rating, the ingress protection class, the vibration and shock resistance, the supply voltage window, the I/O channel count, the firmware revision compatibility, or the housing material for a line must check the manufacturer's datasheet themselves; the desk's condition label covers the bench-test state, not the manufacturer's environmental, electrical, mechanical, or firmware specification. Verify against the original manufacturer datasheet and your own qualification process before installing the unit, especially on a safety circuit, a medical device, or any line where the supply voltage, channel count, terminal assignment, or protocol (PROFINET, EtherCAT, Modbus) is constrained by the panel design.

The condition column does not collapse multiple units into a single descriptor. If the buyer orders five units from one line and three of them turn out to test differently than the desk's initial assessment, the remaining two are still listed at the original condition, not retroactively re-classified. The line is the unit of disclosure.

The condition label does not override the buyer's own incoming-inspection process. Even new surplus, on arrival, deserves the buyer's own visual and serial check. The desk's record is upstream evidence, not a replacement for the buyer's own receiving discipline.

The condition label also does not extend into qualification for medical, safety-critical, or aerospace duty. A refurbished PLC for a packaging line and a refurbished PLC for an infusion pump are not in the same conversation; the line-by-line disclosure records the unit, not the application. The application qualification belongs to the buyer's engineering and quality system.

Reading the condition column on your own quote

A practical reading order for the quote before you sign:

Count the lines and confirm the line count matches the BOM you sent. A line count discrepancy is the first place a unit goes missing.
Read the condition column row by row, not as a whole. A buyer who reads the column as a single block ("all surplus") has missed the rows that say "used, no bench test".
Note the date codes where they appear. A new-surplus unit with a 2018 date code is still new surplus, but it may not be the answer for a buyer who needs firmware compatibility with a current generation.
Ask for the bench-test file for any refurbished line you intend to install. The desk keeps the file; the buyer is entitled to see it before the order ships.
Ask for the pre-dispatch photograph file before payment. A line on a quote can be re-tested; the photograph record is the closest thing to the unit in your hand.

These five reads take ten minutes and they change the meaning of the quote.

What we will not do on a quote

A few related limits worth naming:

We do not retroactively re-label a used line as refurbished because a buyer requests it. The condition is the condition at the time of the bench check.
We do not write "tested" without a bench-test file behind the word. The line that says "tested" carries a file; the line that says "inspected" carries only the visual and power-on record.
We do not batch a mixed lot into a single condition label. If three units of a ten-unit line are used and seven are new surplus, the quote shows that — three rows "used", seven rows "new surplus".
We do not substitute a unit into a line without changing the line's condition label. If the desk needs to source from a different channel to fill the line, the new unit gets a fresh line entry, not a silent substitution.

These limits are part of the line-by-line disclosure, not an exception to it.

A short example

A buyer sends a 24-line BOM for a control-cabinet retrofit. The desk returns a quote with 24 numbered rows. On the quote:

16 lines are listed as new surplus with date codes in the 2023–2025 range, sourced from factory overstock.
5 lines are listed as refurbished with a bench-test file reference and a one-line diagnostic summary, pulled from a decommissioned panel and load-tested.
2 lines are listed as used with a power-on confirmation, sourced from a working panel pull.
1 line is not quoted because the channel did not surface the part, with a note explaining the source channels searched.

The buyer reads the quote line by line. The buyer asks for the bench-test files on the five refurbished lines and the photograph files on the two used lines. The buyer accepts 22 of the 24 lines, declines the two used lines, and asks the desk to surface a substitute channel for the missing line. The desk returns a revised quote with 23 lines, each row showing its own condition label.

This is what a line-item quote is for. The condition column is where the desk is honest with the buyer about what they would receive.

Send the BOM and read the column back

When you send a BOM, ask for the quote back with the condition column populated on every line. Read the column before you sign. Ask for the bench-test file on the refurbished rows and the pre-dispatch photograph file on the used rows. Decline any line where the column is missing or where the wording is generic. The line-item record is what the buyer and the desk share when something goes right and when something does not.

To start a quote with condition-on-every-line, send your BOM to the procurement page and request a quote with the condition column populated on every line; for a machine-down urgent replacement, contact our sourcing desk through the inquiry page so the desk can match channels before quoting. If you already have the line items, share your BOM and ask for a quote back with the per-line bench-test files attached.

Published 22 September 2026, by the Sourcing Desk, aoctrl.com — independent distributor (not an authorized distributor of any brand listed). Data through August 2026 from internal desk records and the desk's own bench-test files; no manufacturer warranty is in force on any line item. The desk screens end users and end uses and declines transactions that cannot be screened.

Data Notes

The condition vocabulary ("new surplus", "refurbished", "used") is the desk's own classification, applied consistently across Yaskawa, Siemens, Schneider, Mitsubishi, Omron, Phoenix Contact, and other lines the desk handles. The classification maps to the same six-step inspection sequence regardless of brand. New surplus is not a manufacturer warranty statement; refurbished is not a recertification to a SIL or PL rating; used is not a bench qualification. The desk does not issue EAC, TR CU, ISO 13485, UL, CE-mark-for-conformity, or any other third-party certificate on any line item; those belong to the importer of record. Catalog grounding: this article is anchored to Yaskawa Sigma-7 series listings on the aoctrl.com site (SGD7S SERVOPACK family, SGM7J / SGM7G / SGM7A motor families, MP3300iec motion controller) and to the procurement / quality service pages.

A note on condition versus substitution

The condition column on the quote is not a cross-reference column. A buyer who reads the condition label as a substitute for a Yaskawa Sigma-7 datasheet check is reading the wrong column. If the question is whether an SGD7S-1R6A00A can replace an SGD7S-R90A00A on a working line, that question belongs to the original manufacturer datasheet and to the buyer's own qualification process — comparing mounting style (DIN rail), module width, terminal assignment, supply voltage (24 V DC / 230 V AC), I/O channel count, firmware version, communication protocol, ambient temperature, ingress protection (IP rating), housing material, and the lifecycle / end-of-life status of both units. The desk can supply a written cross-reference report on request, but the desk does not, and the condition column does not, certify that one drive is a substitute for another. On safety circuits and on lines where a substation firmware mismatch would halt commissioning, do not substitute from the condition column alone; keep the original part number and let the buyer's engineering decide.

Cross-border delivery and condition labels

The condition label travels with the unit when it ships. A line item shipped under EXW (Shenzhen) carries the bench-test file with the unit; a line item shipped under DAP (named destination) carries the same file in the packing list; a line item shipped under DDP (named destination) carries the same file and clears customs under the desk's terms of sale, not the buyer's. The desk quotes EXW, DAP, or DDP per the buyer's request and per what the destination country permits for industrial-automation parts. Shipments to buyers in Moscow, the Russian regions, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and other CIS destinations are arranged under DDP where the quotation states it; the desk screens end users and end uses, classifies before quoting, and declines transactions that cannot be screened. The condition column on every line is the same regardless of the Incoterms; the screening statement, the customs paperwork, and the carrier selection are what change with the destination.

Per-line disclosure, restated

Every line of the quote carries a condition label — new surplus, refurbished, used, or not quoted — written against the unit that will ship, not against the BOM row the buyer sent. The label is per line; the bench-test file is per line; the pre-dispatch photograph record is per line. A buyer who needs the condition label to apply to a sub-line (for example, three units of a ten-unit line must all be refurbished) needs to write that into the RFQ before the desk quotes, because the desk will not retroactively re-batch a mixed lot into a single condition descriptor.

Industrial constraints to read alongside the column

The condition column tells you the unit's bench state; the panel the unit goes into imposes industrial constraints that the column does not cover. Confirm against the original manufacturer datasheet for ambient air temperature (operating and storage), ingress protection, vibration and shock resistance, supply voltage window, pollution degree, EMC immunity, and the firmware revision compatible with the rest of the cabinet before energising. A refurbished drive is still subject to those constraints; "refurbished" describes the unit, not the panel.

FAQ

Does a "new surplus" unit carry a manufacturer warranty?

No. New surplus means the unit is unused and factory-sealed (or factory-fresh), not that the original manufacturer warranty is in force. Warranty terms on a quote are written by the independent industrial automation distributor, not by the original manufacturer, and they apply for the period stated on the quote (or, if no period is stated, none is offered).

What does "refurbished" actually mean on a line item?

A refurbished line means the unit was working when pulled, then cleaned, inspected, and bench-tested. The bench-test file is kept against the line, and the buyer can request it before the unit ships. The label is the summary; the file is the evidence.

Can I ask for the bench-test file before I pay?

Yes. Bench-test files and pre-dispatch photograph files are kept against each line and are available on request before payment clears. Asking for the file before payment is part of normal procurement discipline.

Why do some lines say "used" instead of "refurbished"?

Used means the unit was pulled from working equipment and is offered without a full bench test. Used is the honest label when the desk is not bench-qualifying the unit. If a buyer needs a bench-tested unit, the line needs to be re-quoted at refurbished; the desk does not silently re-label used as refurbished.

What if a line item arrives and the condition is not what the quote said?

The desk treats the line-item record as the contract. If the unit received does not match the condition written on the quote, the buyer is entitled to return the unit under the terms on the quote. The line is the unit of disclosure; the line is also the unit of remedy.

Do I have to accept the condition written on every line?

No. The quote is a proposal. The buyer can accept, decline, or counter on any line. A buyer who needs all-new-surplus for an entire BOM should say so before the desk quotes; the desk will then re-quote from the channels that surface new-surplus stock only, and may return a higher price or fewer matched lines as a result.

Is the condition column on every line, or only when the desk feels like it?

Every line. The condition label is mandatory on every row of the quote, including rows where the unit is new surplus, where it is refurbished, where it is used, and where the desk could not surface a unit (which is written as "not quoted" rather than left blank).