Aftermarket sales for parts and service: your installed base is your cheapest pipeline

Lantech’s parts page says 90% of its parts orders ship the same day and that it supports “every stretch wrapper and case machine we have ever built.” Thermwood puts a price on its Advanced Support Program: $225 a month per machine. Numbers like those were rare. On Oct. 26, 2026, we reviewed the public parts and service pages of ten machinery and equipment makers to see how they handle aftermarket sales. Six stated no parts shipping speed or stock count, nine published no service plan price, and none let a visitor type in a serial number and see the parts for that machine.

For a machinery or automation maker, the machines already in the field are the cheapest pipeline you have, because you know where they are, how old they are and roughly when they will need something. To sell more parts, service and upgrades, build an installed-base list from serial numbers and ship-to records, make parts findable from the serial plate, publish the numbers a maintenance planner compares, and contact each owner at the points in a machine’s life when it needs something.

Why do aftermarket sales get less attention than new machines?

New machine sales are visible, with a big purchase order, a press release and a commission check. Parts and service arrive as small orders over the phone, often handled by a customer service team measured on response time rather than growth. Marketing plans usually point at new logos.

We think that gets the order backward for most companies with a large installed base. The owner already trusts the machine enough to keep it running, and the maintenance manager already knows your name. What they lack is an easy way to find the right part and a reason to talk to you before something breaks.

What do machinery makers’ parts and service pages actually show?

We picked ten makers that sell machines into plants and publish a parts or service section, and left out the makers in our review of how equipment makers address the buying committee so the two pieces do not repeat each other. We recorded only what the public pages said on Oct. 26, 2026. Several of these companies may offer more behind a customer login or through their dealers.

Maker	Finding and ordering parts	Service plans and warranty	Upgrades and older machines	Stated speed or stock
Lantech (stretch wrappers, case equipment)	Online search by part number or description, orders 24/7 with an account or card; some orders need the machine’s serial number	Warranty extensions for new machines and for existing machines still in their original warranty	Retrofit request form; each retrofit ships with instructions, a parts list and drawings	90% of parts orders ship the same day
Cincinnati Incorporated (press brakes, lasers, shears)	Order form with SKUs and prices for common laser, press brake and shear parts; a serial number finder shows where the plate sits on each machine type	Four support plans; Pro covers machines 1 to 10 years old “contingent upon inspection,” Premium comes only with a new machine, and both take 10% off parts	Upgrade configurator by tonnage and model; control retrofits	Not stated
Thermwood (CNC routers)	Online store for supplies; repair parts ordered by email	Advanced Support Program at $225 a month per machine: 20% off repair parts and a warranty that runs while the machine stays enrolled	Retrofits of controls, drives and spindles; factory overhauls	Not stated
DoALL (band saws)	Online catalog searchable by machine model or part number, with schematics	Cut Above 10 Year Warranty, an annual subscription sold only at purchase; 10% or 15% off parts by tier	ServiceALL maintenance program “designed specifically to support aging equipment”	Same-day shipping “available on most orders”
Hyd-Mech (band and cold saws)	By phone or form, with a distributor network	Not on the pages reviewed	Not on the pages reviewed	“Over 25,000 parts ready to be shipped,” aiming for next-day delivery
Beckwood (hydraulic presses)	By phone; rubber pads and wear parts stocked at its St. Louis factory	Three plans shown (maintenance contract, support contract, extended warranty), each with the same list of inclusions	Retrofits “regardless of the original manufacturer”	Not stated
Wisconsin Oven (industrial ovens)	Online parts catalog (it did not load for our automated request)	Annual and bi-annual maintenance contracts, priced by phone; 3- and 5-year warranties on standard ovens	Rebuilds and modifications for all brands, including makers that have gone out of business	Not stated
Novatec (plastics drying and conveying)	By phone or form; service line open 24/7	Warranty extended to five years on listed products when a MachineSense data plan is activated within 60 days of shipment	Not on the pages reviewed	Not stated
Gorbel (workstation cranes, lifting)	Through the original dealer or Gorbel, with the crane’s serial number	Warranty registration by order number, which also signs the owner up for service bulletins and recalls	Not on the pages reviewed	Not stated
RoboVent (dust collectors)	Online catalog with part numbers and quote requests; replacement filters for other brands’ collectors	Service contracts with listed inclusions	Retrofits of existing dust collection systems	“More than 3,000 stocked part numbers”

Describe a service plan or contract6 makers

Offer retrofits, upgrades or rebuilds for existing machines6

Let you find parts online (search, catalog or order form)5

State a parts shipping speed or stock count4

Ask for the serial number to match parts3

Sell parts or service for other makers' machines3

Publish a service plan price1

Offer a public serial-number parts search0

What ten machinery makers' parts and service pages offer

Item	Value (makers)
Describe a service plan or contract	6 makers
Offer retrofits, upgrades or rebuilds for existing machines	6
Let you find parts online (search, catalog or order form)	5
State a parts shipping speed or stock count	4
Ask for the serial number to match parts	3
Sell parts or service for other makers' machines	3
Publish a service plan price	1
Offer a public serial-number parts search	0

Counts of the ten makers whose public pages showed each item on Oct. 26, 2026. More may sit behind customer logins or with dealers. Source: Our review of the public parts, service, warranty and upgrade pages of Lantech, Cincinnati Incorporated, Thermwood, DoALL, Hyd-Mech, Beckwood, Wisconsin Oven, Novatec, Gorbel and RoboVent, Oct. 26, 2026.

The serial number is the weakest link. Three of the ten ask for it. Gorbel says you need the crane’s serial number to get the correct parts, Cincinnati Incorporated has a page showing where the serial plate sits on each of its machine types, from press brakes to shapers, and Lantech needs it for some online orders. None turns the serial number into a search. A maintenance technician holding a worn part usually has the serial plate in front of them and no idea of your part number.

Speed and stock numbers are rare, and they do real work. Lantech’s same-day rate, Hyd-Mech’s 25,000 parts ready to ship and RoboVent’s 3,000 stocked part numbers give a planner choosing between you and a local supply house something to weigh. Hyd-Mech also says it designs most of its machines with off-the-shelf parts that local suppliers carry. That gives up some parts revenue in exchange for the customer’s uptime, and saying so openly is a selling point for a buyer who has waited on a part before.

Service plans get described far more often than priced. Cincinnati Incorporated sets out who qualifies for each of its four plans, and DoALL lists what each warranty tier includes, but only Thermwood puts a price on the page. Beckwood shows three plans with identical lists of what they include, so a buyer cannot tell them apart without calling.

Your installed base is also someone else’s market. Beckwood retrofits presses regardless of who built them. Wisconsin Oven services every brand of industrial oven, including makers that no longer exist. RoboVent manufactures replacement filters for most dust collector makes and says plainly that “these are not OEM-manufactured products.” If your parts page says little, theirs is the one your customer’s maintenance planner reads.

How do you build an installed-base list?

Start in the ERP. Every machine you have shipped has a sales order, and most have a serial number. Pull them into one sheet with these fields: serial number, model, ship date, ship-to address (the plant where the machine runs, which is often different from the bill-to), commissioning date, warranty end date, control or software version, last service visit, and parts purchased in the last 24 months.

Then fill the gaps. Warranty registrations, service tickets and field service reports often hold the current site and a named maintenance contact. Gorbel’s registration shows how to make the owner want to fill it in: register once and you hear about bulletins and recalls. Your distributors and integrators know which machines have moved. Machines resold on the used market turn up when a new owner calls for a manual, so log them.

Finally, put it in the CRM as its own object linked to the account, so a salesperson looking at a plant sees every machine there, its age and its last service. Our guide to CRM for manufacturing covers how to split those records between the CRM and the ERP.

Who buys parts, service and upgrades at the customer?

The buyer changes with the size of the purchase. A $300 part is usually ordered by a maintenance technician or planner, sometimes through an MRO buyer or a distributor, and speed and certainty win. A service contract or overhaul brings in the maintenance manager, purchasing and often engineering. A retrofit or replacement adds the plant manager and finance, and it starts to look like a new machine sale; our guide to the buying committee for capital equipment works through public bid documents that show how those committees score a service contract or a replacement.

So the installed-base list needs more than one contact per machine. At minimum, record the person who orders parts, the maintenance manager and whoever approved the original purchase. The first keeps your parts revenue, the second decides on service plans and overhauls, and the third is your best lead for the replacement if they are still there.

How do you run an aftermarket sales lifecycle program?

Tie each message to an event in the machine’s life, using the dates in your installed-base list. Several of the makers we reviewed already sell to one of these moments.

Trigger	What the owner needs	What to send	A maker selling to this moment
Purchase and the first 60 days	Confidence they can maintain it	Recommended spares kit, training dates, registration, how to order parts	DoALL sells its 10-year warranty only at purchase; Novatec’s five-year warranty depends on a data plan activated within 60 days of shipment
90 days before warranty ends	Protection from a surprise repair bill	Service plan or warranty extension offer	Lantech offers extensions while a machine is still in its original warranty; Thermwood’s mobile app monitoring is free on new machines during warranty, then needs enrollment in its support program
Hours or months to a major service interval	A planned outage, not an unplanned one	Overhaul quote and scheduling, sent before they bid it out	Thermwood’s app shows a countdown to scheduled maintenance
Known wear point or rebuild age	Restored performance without a new machine	Rebuild or exchange offer, or a plan with an inspection	Cincinnati Incorporated’s Pro plan for machines 1 to 10 years old; DoALL’s ServiceALL for aging saws
Control or software end of support	A path off obsolete electronics	Retrofit or upgrade proposal with a downtime estimate	Cincinnati Incorporated’s upgrade configurator; Thermwood’s control and drive retrofits
Parts going unavailable or machine past design life	A replacement plan	Trade-in or replacement proposal, with a migration plan	Thermwood’s rule of thumb: upgrade a machine whose basic mechanics are sound, replace one whose mechanics need work

Every trigger in that table is a date you can know ahead of time from the installed-base list. The supplier who contacts the owner first has the best chance to shape the work, and as Beckwood, Wisconsin Oven and RoboVent show, the original maker is not the only one who can call.

In your industry

Industrial machinery and equipment

Your installed base may be decades old and resold several times. A serial-number parts lookup and published parts availability matter most, because the current owner may never have bought from you directly. Cincinnati Incorporated’s serial finder covers shapers, sheet slitters and conveyors as well as its lasers and press brakes, so owners across its product lines know where to look.

Automation and industrial tech

Connected systems can report run hours and faults directly, which turns the lifecycle triggers above from estimates into alerts. Novatec ties its longer warranty to a data plan, and Thermwood’s app lists every machine an owner has and counts down to maintenance. The integrator often owns the relationship, so share installed-base data with integrators and agree who makes the service call; our guide to marketing through system integrators covers that split.

What to do Monday

Pull every serial number you have shipped in the last 15 years with its ship-to address and ship date, and count how many are past warranty, how many are due for a major service in 2027 and how many run controls you no longer support. That count is your aftermarket pipeline. Then score your own parts and service pages against the eight items in our chart above and fix the cheapest gap first. For most makers that is one sentence stating how fast parts ship, or a parts search that starts from the serial plate. If you sell parts online, our guide to e-commerce for manufacturers covers how to do it without upsetting your distributors. If parts prices are going up in 2027, our price increase letter and tariff surcharge notice templates show how to tell the owners on that list before the invoice does.