What a sourcing report actually looks like

Below is a real report we produced for a construction contractor in Brazil who needed a wall-painting robot. The client’s identity has been removed. Nothing else has been tidied up — including the parts where the answer was “this is not published anywhere”.

How it works

1
You describe the requirement
About 5 minutes
Category, application, quantity, destination. You do not need a model number — narrowing that down is part of the work.
2
We research and verify
5–7 business days
Manufacturer identity and trading records, published specifications, certification status, and the commercial risks specific to your market.
3
You receive the report
By email
Every claim labelled by evidence level, so you can tell what is confirmed from what a supplier merely says. Including our assessment of which supplier to avoid.
4
You decide — or we refund
Your call
Take it to the suppliers yourself, or have us handle the negotiation. If we could not deliver what the service promised, you get the full amount back.

How to read the labels

Every factual claim in the report carries one of three labels. This is the part buyers tell us they keep: it separates what is confirmed from what a supplier simply says about itself.

Verified: Read directly from the manufacturer's own website or filings, with the date we read it.
Stated: The company claims it and we have not independently confirmed it. Deployment counts and export references are usually this.
Open: Not published anywhere we could find. It becomes a question in your quotation request.

Sample report · redacted

Wall painting robots: four builders, one decision first

Buyer: Contractor, Brazil
Requirement: Painting robot, 1 unit
Destination: São Paulo
Service: Supplier comparison

1 · The decision that has to come first

Interior walls or exterior façade?

In Chinese construction robotics these are two separate product families built by different companies. A supplier strong in one is usually absent from the other, so quoting before this is settled produces numbers you cannot compare.

Interior — floor-running

Self-propelled platforms that grind concrete, spray putty, sand it back and apply latex paint. Working heights 3.3–6.2 m, around 950 kg, ships as one crate.

Exterior — suspended

Façade systems working from a cradle down a high-rise elevation. Different safety regime, different rigging, a different regulatory conversation in Brazil.

The enquiry said “construction robot for building painting”, which reads either way. Everything below is organised so that answering this one question selects the shortlist.

2 · Supplier candidates

Dafang Intelligence

大方智能 · Dongguan, Guangdong

Lead candidate — interior

Models

DF033 · DF062 · DF033-MINI Verified

Working height

3.3 m (DF033)

Process coverage

Grinding, putty spray & scrape, sanding, latex spray

Overseas entities

Singapore · Hong Kong Verified

Claimed markets

Singapore, HK, Dubai, Italy, Canada, Taiwan Stated

Why this one leads. It is the only candidate with registered entities outside mainland China, which matters more than it first appears: export paperwork, an English-language commercial contact and a support channel that survives a time zone are the three things that most often fail on a single-unit purchase. A company already invoicing from Singapore has solved them. The Italy deployment is the company’s own claim — worth asking for a reference, since a European installation implies CE-marked hardware you could reuse toward INMETRO.

Shenzhen Legend Robot

领鹊科技 · Nanshan, Shenzhen

Strongest disclosure

Model

Latex Paint Spraying Robot 6.2 m Verified

Throughput

2,400–3,000 m²/day

Machine

950 kg · 1,450 × 780 × 1,750 mm

Spray system

80 L tank · 800 mm width · 25 MPa

Film build

70 μm ± 5 μm · >95% coverage

Reliability

0.33 failures per machine per month Stated

Useful even if you don’t buy it. Legend publishes the most complete specification of the four, including a crew model of one operator running two robots. Those numbers give you a yardstick to hold the other three against — a supplier who will not answer the same questions in writing is telling you something. Note the 6.2 m machine is built for factory, hotel, school and hospital interiors; confirm it suits residential floor heights before comparing it to the 3.3 m class.

Guangdong Bozhilin Robotics

广东博智林机器人 · Foshan, Guangdong

Largest — check ownership

Founded

July 2018 Verified

Scale

28 models · 4,000+ units delivered Stated

Throughput

Putty 100 m²/h · paint 200 m²/h Stated

Range

Interior finishing and exterior high-rise

Parent

Country Garden

Export record

None found Open

The caution is commercial, not technical. Bozhilin has by far the deepest deployment record here and covers interior and exterior in one catalogue. But it is a subsidiary of Country Garden, a property developer in well-documented financial distress, and its corporate contact address still sits on the parent’s domain. For a machine you expect to run for years, that raises a question about spare parts, firmware support and warranty continuity that has nothing to do with how well the robot sprays. If you shortlist them, ask in writing which entity services the warranty and who honours it if the parent restructures.

Zhucheng Technology

筑橙科技 · Shenzhen

Façade specialist — data gap

Focus

Exterior wall coating, end to end Verified

Product lines

Two façade series — substrate prep through finish coat

Track record

Several hundred thousand m² as of 2022 Stated

Published specs

None found Open

Only relevant if the answer was exterior. Zhucheng is the one genuine façade specialist here and covers the full exterior workflow rather than just the paint pass. The problem is disclosure: no model numbers, no throughput figures, no export history are public, so there is nothing yet to compare. If §1 resolves to exterior they move to the top of the ask-list — but the first request is a specification sheet, not a price.

3 · Destination-specific checks

These are where a China-to-Brazil equipment purchase usually goes wrong. None is a reason not to buy — each is a reason to get something in writing before paying.

Power

São Paulo runs 127 V; this class of machine generally does not.

Brazil mixes 127 V and 220 V by region and São Paulo is predominantly 127 V, while Chinese construction robots are normally built for 220 V single-phase or 380 V three-phase. Ask each supplier for the exact supply requirement and whether a dual-voltage build exists — and if the answer is a step-up transformer, who supplies and warrants it.

Certification

Settle the INMETRO position before the order, not at customs.

Establish whether this equipment category requires conformity assessment for import and site use, and who is responsible for obtaining it. A supplier with CE-marked hardware from a European deployment starts from a stronger documentation base.

Freight

Around 950 kg and 1.45 × 0.78 × 1.75 m — one crate, not a container load.

An awkward size: too heavy to air-freight economically, too small to fill a container. Ask for FOB and CIF Santos separately so the freight component is visible, and confirm whether the battery ships installed — lithium packs change the dangerous-goods paperwork.

Support

Ask who comes when it stops working.

For one machine 18,000 km from the factory, commissioning, operator training, spare-part lead time and software updates matter more than the purchase price. Get each named in the quotation with a response time, and establish whether any South American service partner exists.

Evidence note

Verified items were read from the manufacturer’s own website, with the date recorded. Stated items are supplier claims we have not independently confirmed — including all deployment counts and overseas market references. We did not conduct a factory audit, inspect any machine, or confirm regulatory positions with INMETRO. Prices, lead times and commercial terms are confirmed only in a dated written quotation from the supplier.

What the delivered report adds to this sample

✓A written quotation from each supplier, against your stated specification
✓Side-by-side commercial comparison: price, lead time, payment terms
✓Business licence and trading identity checks on each company
✓Named contacts — you can approach the suppliers directly if you prefer

Order a report for your requirement

We are paid by you, not by suppliers — which is why the sample above tells you which supplier to be careful with. If we cannot deliver what the service promises, you get a full refund.

$99

Price range for this type of machine

5 business days

$199

Find and compare 3 suppliers

7 business days

Describe your requirement