What we translate
Technical Document Translation Services
Techniwords translates more than 40 types of technical documents for US industry, from user manuals and safety data sheets to patents, CAD drawings, and validation protocols. Every document goes to a certified translator who already knows the format, the standards behind it, and the mistakes that matter.
DWG, InDesign, FrameMaker, XML, or a scanned PDF: the document comes back laid out and ready to publish, in the file type your team already uses.
OSHA, ANSI, ASME, ISO, FDA: each document type page on this hub names the regulation that governs it, because that is what your translation will be judged against.
A patent goes to a translator with IP experience, a HAZOP study to one who reads P&IDs. Fifteen years of projects taught us that matching beats volume.
One Agency for Every Technical Document You Produce
A manufacturing company of reasonable size produces a surprising range of documents: operator manuals, safety data sheets, engineering drawings, quality procedures, calibration certificates, tender responses, training modules. Each has its own format, its own regulator, and its own way of going wrong in another language. Most companies end up juggling three or four vendors to cover that spread. The catalog below exists so you don't have to.
Techniwords has provided technical document translation services to US industrial, engineering, aerospace, manufacturing, and software companies for 15 years. We are a member of the American Translators Association and GALA, and every project follows an ISO 17100-compliant workflow: specialized translation, independent revision by a second linguist, and final QA on numbers, units, and layout. The same translation memory and termbase serve all your document types, which is how your user manual, your service documentation, and your parts catalog end up calling the same component by the same name.
Why document type matters: a translator who does excellent work on marketing copy can still produce a dangerous safety data sheet, because SDS translation is governed by OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1200 and uses codified GHS phrases that must not be paraphrased. Matching the linguist to the document type is not a luxury. It is the difference between a compliant document and a liability.
Browse the categories below to find your document. Each page explains what makes that document type difficult, which US and international regulations apply, which languages are most requested, and what our process looks like in practice. If your document doesn't fit any category, send it over anyway; after thousands of projects, we have seen most of what industry can produce.
Product & User Documentation
The documents that ship with your product and follow it through its life. This is where translation quality touches your end users, your installers, and your liability exposure most directly.
Safety, Compliance & Regulatory
Documents a regulator, a customs officer, or an auditor will read. Here the translation is judged against a written rule, and the codified phrasing is part of the compliance.
Engineering & Design Documents
The documents engineers draw, specify, and build from. Formats are technical (DWG, DXF, STEP exports, structured tables) and the terminology leaves no room for interpretation.
Quality & Process Documents
The documentation your quality system runs on and your auditors ask for. Consistency across the whole system matters as much as accuracy in any single document.
IP & Commercial Technical Documents
Documents where technical accuracy meets legal or commercial stakes: protection you can enforce, bids you can win, terms you can defend.
Software & Training Content
Documentation that lives in repositories and learning platforms rather than binders. The workflow matters as much as the words: Git, DITA, SCORM, and release cycles.
How Technical Document Translation Works at Techniwords
Whatever the document type, the backbone is the same. We analyze your files and lock terminology before translation starts. A certified translator matched to your discipline does the work in professional CAT tools, against your dedicated translation memory. A second specialist then revises the full text against the source, sentence by sentence, and a final QA pass checks numbers, units, cross-references, and layout before delivery in your original format. The details of each step, and how they bend to fit a patent differently than a training module, are described on the individual document pages.
Pricing follows the document, not a flat menu. Text-heavy documents are quoted per word, drawings per sheet, scanned legacy files per page. Repeated content is discounted through translation memory, which matters a great deal on document families like SDS libraries or SOP systems where whole sections recur. For a number you can budget against, our pricing guide gives real ranges, or send your files for an itemized quote within one business hour.
Documents in 60+ Languages, Both Directions
About half our document work moves outward: American products documented for Mexico, Brazil, Europe, and Asia. The other half moves inward, when US companies buy foreign equipment, source from overseas suppliers, or inherit plants documented in German, Japanese, or Chinese. Spanish leads demand in both directions, from workforce documents for US plants to full manual sets for Latin American markets. Each language page details the technical constraints that matter for documents: text expansion, character sets, and formatting conventions.
Technical Document Translation FAQ
Which technical documents do you translate most often?
User manuals, safety data sheets, engineering drawings, SOPs, and tender packages make up the bulk of daily work. But the full catalog above covers more than 40 document types, and the long tail is real: in a typical month we also see calibration certificates, HAZOP studies, warranty terms, and API documentation. If your document produces text and carries technical meaning, it fits here.
Do all document types cost the same to translate?
No. A straightforward manual in an editable format sits at the lower end of the $0.10 to $0.25 per word range. Patents, validation protocols, and documents requiring certified translation sit higher because of the expertise and liability involved. Drawings and scanned documents are quoted per sheet or per page. Every quote is itemized so you can see exactly what drives the number.
Can you handle mixed document packages, like a full plant handover?
Yes, and it is one of our specialties. A handover or acquisition package typically mixes manuals, as-built drawings, maintenance records, and quality documents. We triage the package with you, prioritize what operations needs first, and run the whole set against a single termbase so the turbine is called the same thing in the O&M manual and on the drawing.
Do you provide certified translations of technical documents?
Yes. Certificates of conformity, regulatory submissions, patent priority documents, and any document headed to a US court, agency, or licensing board can be delivered with a signed statement of accuracy, and notarized on request. The certification process and its typical uses are described on our certified technical translation page.
How do you keep terminology consistent across different document types?
One termbase per client, shared by every document type and every linguist who works on your account. When your engineering team approves a term once, it applies to the manual, the datasheet, the catalog, and the training module. The termbase outlives individual projects, so consistency compounds instead of eroding with each new document.
What if my document type is not listed on this page?
Send it anyway. The 40 pages above cover what crosses our desks most, not the limit of what we translate. Field service bulletins, expert witness reports, technical newsletters, and laboratory notebooks have all come through in the past year. A quick look at a sample is enough for us to confirm fit and quote accurately.
Send Us the Document. Any Document.
Upload your files for an itemized quote within one business hour, with the profile of the translator we would assign. Confidentiality applies from the first email, quote accepted or not.
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