Sworn Translation in Çorum

Çorum is an industrial city between Central Anatolia and the Black Sea, and the greater part of the translation work that comes from it has to do with machinery manufacture. For a business that exports machinery, the need for translation does not end when the product is sold: the machine will be installed, run and maintained wherever it goes. Translation, in other words, is an obligation that carries on after the sale.

Machinery documents live on after the sale

The file for a machine is made up of the installation manual, the operating instructions, the maintenance schedule, the spare parts list, the notes on the electrical and hydraulic diagrams and the declaration of conformity. These documents are in use for years and are updated as revisions come through. The pattern of terminology settled in the first translation therefore governs every version that follows. On machinery files originating in Çorum we hand the term list to the customer along with the delivery, so that later revisions can proceed with the same glossary.

Building materials and farming

Brick and tile production and agriculture are the province’s other two economic legs. In building materials it is technical performance certificates and test reports that are translated; on the farming side, product and analysis documents. These files may not run to the volume of the machinery files, but they call for the same care: numerical values and references to standards have to be carried across without the slightest change.

Why English and German

In machinery exports English serves as common ground whatever the buyer’s own language may be. German is asked for both because of customers in the European market and because of the tradition of technical documentation there. On files prepared in the two languages at once, drawing on a single pool of terms brings an advantage in consistency and in cost alike. Scope and pricing are set out in detail on the pricing page.

The site team and technician training

The most easily overlooked side of machinery exports is that someone at the far end has to learn to operate the product. That turns training material into a regular translation item: installation training presentations, operator handbooks, fault-finding flow charts and checklists. The reader of these texts is usually not an engineer but a technician working on site, which means the sentences have to be short and direct.

In fault-finding texts the order of the steps is the meaning itself. The difference between “switch the isolator off first” and “after switching the isolator off” can be decisive for safety. When translating these sections we therefore simplify the sentence structure and bring out the expressions that signal condition and sequence.

Checklists and label texts, by contrast, stay on the machine permanently. Because space is limited in these texts, shortening may be necessary; what matters, though, is that shortening must not weaken the force of the warning. Rather than cutting a long warning down, we prefer to use a shorter form of words that carries the same meaning.

Training material also involves a relationship between image and text. The numbered notes on diagrams and illustrations have to match the steps in the text exactly. If the numbering slips, the person reading the manual may be sent to the wrong part; on files that contain illustrations we therefore treat matching them up after translation as a separate step.

Spare parts lists are a discipline in their own right. Because part codes, names and quantities arrive in table form, the translation looks quick; yet the name a part is given in the manual has to agree with the name it is given in the list. Where that consistency is missing, the customer orders the wrong part and the problem comes back to the translation.

In Çorum we have no branch; the translation of the machinery files and the notarisation and apostille steps alike are completed at the office in Ankara. Because the documentation has to be ready by the time a machine is ready for despatch, gathering the work in one place pays off: being a day’s courier journey from Ankara shortens the process on documents that require notarisation.

Keeping up with the pace of the production line

When a machine is ready for despatch, the documentation has to be ready too. This is where working remotely comes in: the files arrive online, the translation is carried out in Ankara, and the electronically signed copy is delivered the same day. Being a day’s courier journey from Ankara also shortens the process on documents that require notarisation. You can check which approval is looked for in the market you are shipping to on the countries page.

The information here summarises the process; the notarisation and apostille steps are completed in Ankara. For definitive information, go by the current announcement of the institution concerned.