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Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Operational from the second quarter of 2027.

A working machine is scrapped for want of one document
We produce it

Equivalys sells the engineering work, the testing and the documents that make the transfer of a second-hand industrial machine lawful in France. The machine keeps working. The buyer gets a certificate that an engineer has signed and an insurer can price

See the platform demo How a requalification runs
Exploded view of a spindle bearing assembly, its parts aligned on one axis
R. 4313-14
Certificate of conformity, second-hand work equipment
Signed by the responsible party. Substantiated by measurement, a load test and a reconstructed technical file.
French Labour Code, Articles R. 4313-14 and L. 4311-3
7,150machines a year pass under the French certificate obligation when a site closes or is sold piecemeal
12×at least: the functional value of a lathe against what it fetches as scrap
1.8person-days per machine at the mature norm, against 5 to 15 engineer-days for a bespoke assessment

Why a working machine goes to scrap

French law already decides what may be done with a second-hand machine. It is the absence of documents, not the condition of the equipment, that closes the market.

When a site closes or re-equips, the party selling the machines must hand the buyer a certificate of conformity. A judicial administrator, a leasing company or a listed group cannot sign what it cannot prove. The alternative is a bespoke engineering assessment that takes weeks and costs a material share of what the machine will fetch. So the machine goes to scrap.

A polished steel gear standing in a heap of scrap metal

The document

Article R. 4313-14 obliges the seller to hand over a certificate of conformity. Article L. 4311-3 prohibits the sale or rental of non-compliant equipment, and Article L. 4311-5 gives the buyer a year to seek rescission with damages. The exposure attaches to a signature.

French Labour Code; template certificate set by the order of 22 October 2009

The part

A machine tool stays in service two to three times longer than the manufacturer keeps producing a given spare part. When the assembly fails, the line stops, and few firms can reconstruct a part from a worn sample without the original drawings.

Observed across the equipment families the founders have supplied for two decades

The collateral

A lessor finances what it can repossess and resell. A specialised machine with no recognised method for assessing its condition gets no residual value, so it is declined at credit committee whatever the cost of money.

Residual value insurance requires accessible market data and a valuation method

How a requalification runs

One pass on site, on the mandate of the party disposing of the equipment, for a fixed fee per machine. Equivalys never takes title to a machine and takes no margin on any sale.

1

Park assessment

The field team inventories the equipment park and records each machine's configuration, modifications and provenance.

2

Dismantling and diagnosis

Protocol dismantling, then condition diagnosis on the instruments: vibration, acoustic emission, thermography.

3

Technical file

The lost file is reconstructed from measurements, photogrammetry, diagrams and manufacturer archives. An engineer validates and signs the risk assessment.

4

Load test

The machine, or the replaced part, is tested on the instrumented bench against the performance level its safety function requires.

5

Certificate and residual life

The certificate of conformity is issued with a measured residual life assessment, and every result is written to the machine record.

About 25 machinesshare one mobilisation, one site access and one site-level file, which is where the productivity comes from.
Hours, not weeksfor a discontinued part: identification and a cross-model equivalent resolve most requests the same working day; manufacture with an equivalence report follows only when sourcing fails.

The machine record

Every machine Equivalys touches gets a digital record: configuration, measurements, the proof behind each replaced part, the documents, and a residual life that an underwriter can rate. The five products are all sold from this record.

Demonstration with synthetic data. Pick a machine from the park, open its record, and run the protocol.

Equivalys platformpreview
Mandate M-2027-014 · Textile finishing plant, Loire · site clearance

Equipment park

MachineYearMassStatus
Preview interface with synthetic data. Screens, fields and values shown here illustrate the record; the production platform is specified in the technical dossier.

Five products on one record

Each product feeds the record and the record makes the next one possible. Months are counted from operational readiness.

From month 1

Discontinued part

Identification, a cross-model equivalent, sourcing, or manufacture with a functional equivalence report closed on the test bench.

EUR 990 per request on average
From month 3

Requalification and lawful transfer

Park assessment, dismantling, technical file, load test, certificate of conformity and residual life. The principal revenue line.

EUR 2,200 per machine
From month 13

Pooled critical stock

An availability guarantee on critical positions held on participants' sites, made possible by a cross-make interchangeability graph.

EUR 45 per position a month
From month 15

Component authentication

Verification of incoming components on the laboratory instruments: alloy, carbon, heat treatment.

EUR 180 per verification
From month 18

Measured residual life

A warranty-backed statement of residual life and value, fronted by an authorised insurer, plus a residual value index by equipment class.

EUR 1,450 per assessment
The machine record: configuration, modifications, provenance of components, compliance, measured residual life
one record per machine

Three instrument families answer three questions

The instruments stay in-house because they embody the product. Manufacturing goes to French precision subcontractors.

Concentric precision-machined steel rings seen from above

What was the part meant to be?

Dimensional metrology recovers the nominal geometry and the tolerance band from the part's unworn environment: the seat, the shaft, the mating surfaces.

  • Coordinate measurement
  • Structured-light scanning
  • Surface profilometry
Macro view of the grain structure of etched steel

What is it made of?

Material characterisation gives the specification and the heat treatment. X-ray fluorescence reads the alloy; optical emission spectrometry reads the carbon; hardness testing and replica metallography read the microstructure.

  • X-ray fluorescence
  • Optical emission spectrometry
  • Hardness and replica metallography
A row of steel rods whose tops trace a smooth wave

How much life is left?

Condition monitoring captures the assembly's signature and compares it with a model reference. The output is a number, and a number can be underwritten.

  • Vibration analysis
  • Acoustic emission
  • Thermographic inspection

Three dates fixed in law

The certificate obligation is national and permanent. Three further changes take effect before the company opens, and each raises the value of a documented protocol.

21 August 2026An environmental award criterion applies to public contracts launched from that date. A requalified machine with a documented residual life satisfies it.
9 December 2026Directive (EU) 2024/2853: a party who substantially modifies a product and makes it available is treated as its manufacturer, and the ten-year liability long-stop restarts.
20 January 2027Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 on machinery applies, with the first binding definition of substantial modification. Any party modifying a machine must show which side of the line its work falls on.
Second quarter of 2027Equivalys reaches operational readiness: instruments commissioned and calibrated, first engineers in post, product one live from month one.

A market counted from public series

Sized from the bottom up: industrial failures and site closures, the share that creates the certificate obligation, machines per event, and the fee for the work. Re-equipment, which no published series counts, is excluded.

7,150machines a year under the certificate obligation in France
EUR 20.67ma year in service fees, the addressable market for requalification and discontinued parts
2,860machines a year within a working day of Lyon, EUR 7.8m serviceable
687machines requalified in the first three years on the plan, against a reported target of 600

Pricing follows the loss avoided

A four-tonne lathe fetches at most EUR 1,800 as scrap and sells for EUR 22,000 to EUR 75,000 in working order. A bespoke assessment costs at least EUR 2,500 to EUR 7,500 in engineering time. A fee of EUR 2,200 sits below the bottom of that range and recovers a machine worth at least twelve times its scrap value.

Scrap at EUR 450 per tonne, the top of a published French buy-back scale; functional values are published asking-price bands for CNC lathes; day rates are published French freelance engineer rates, 2025–2026.

Four-tonne CNC lathe, EUR Scrap value 1,800 Requalification fee 2,200 Bespoke assessment 2,500 to 7,500 Working order 22,000 to 75,000

Who buys, and why they cannot sign without us

The buyers can be counted from public registers: about 510 insolvency professionals in some 270 practices, and about 240 financing establishments. Each handles a repeating flow of machines.

Judicial administrators and liquidators

Realise assets above scrap without personal exposure. Their signature is traceable and their liability is personal.

Buy requalification and lawful transfer

Leasing companies

Need a residual life and value that an underwriter can rate before a specialised machine is accepted as collateral.

Buy measured residual life

Industrial groups with a compliance function

Close, re-equip or consolidate sites under group audit, and dispose of parks piecemeal with certificates.

Buy park assessment, dismantling and certificates

Manufacturers holding machine parks

Have a line stopped by a part that is out of production, and decide within hours.

Buy identification, sourcing or manufacture of a part

Three founders, three statutory offices

Each of the first two products depends on one of them, and the third turns a measurement into a financial instrument.

Ullah Mohammed Swaif

Chief Executive Officer, industrial and technology direction

Two decades supplying, installing, servicing and reselling industrial equipment, with direct purchasing relationships with more than fifteen manufacturers across six countries. Early sight of end-of-production notices through the dealer channel.

Immad Iftikhar Malik

Chief Financial Officer

Twenty-two years running a non-bank financial company, repossessing and reselling assets rather than merely extending finance. Converts measured condition into residual value undertakings, insurer relationships and agreements with lessors.

Nwachukwu Justina Uchechukwu

Chief Operating Officer

Eighteen years running wholesale trading and import operations: purchasing, acceptance of consignments from unvetted suppliers, quality control and many small counterparties. Every machine and every part passes through her remit.

Recognised, and on schedule

The innovative character of the project was recognised in July 2026. Two robotics manufacturers established in France have given letters of support. The company incorporates in Lyon and reaches operational readiness in the second quarter of 2027.

A sheet of paper with an embossed gear emblem on brushed steel

Milestones

  • July 2026Innovative character recognised
  • Q1 2027Incorporation in Lyon; instruments ordered; technical access agreement with manufacturers negotiated
  • Q2 2027Instruments commissioned and calibrated; first engineers in post; operational readiness; discontinued parts from month one
  • Q3 2027Requalification live from month three; insurance cover in force; first mandates opened
  • 2028Pooled critical stock, component authentication and measured residual life open in turn
  • Early 2030687 machines requalified and 552 part requests delivered; twenty-seven French jobs

What France gets

  • AccessUnblocking the secondary market in capital equipment is the cheapest way to give a small manufacturer production equipment, with neither subsidy nor import.
  • SafetyA requalified machine carries the file showing it has kept its original level of safety.
  • RetentionEquipment that stays in service in France is the circular economy applied to the means of production.
  • JobsTechnical and field roles in machine safety, metrology and maintenance, based in the region and not relocatable.
A long symmetrical industrial hall with two rows of machine tools

Open a conversation

A park to assess, a part out of production, a machine a lessor wants rated, or a question about the method: write to us.

contact@equivalys.com
Equivalys
Lyon metropolitan area, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
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