ISO 17100:2015 & ISO 9001:2015 certified  ·  Offices in Budapest, Milan & Dublin +36 20 512 0960 info@bttranslations.com
Services

Technical Translation for International Business

Technical documentation is not general content written in precise language. It is documentation whose accuracy has operational consequences — a mistranslated installation procedure can damage equipment, a wrong safety data sheet entry can create a compliance failure, an incorrectly localized software interface can make a system unusable. The stakes of technical translation are operational, not merely communicative.

ISO 17100:2015 Certified
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Response within one business hour

Business Team Translations has delivered technical translation projects for manufacturers, engineering firms, aviation IT companies, electronics producers, energy system suppliers, medical device manufacturers, packaging technology companies, and software organizations since 1999. Our technical translators have professional or academic backgrounds in the relevant engineering, industrial, or technology domain — not general language proficiency applied to specialist content.

What We Translate

Eight categories of technical documentation, across all major European and non-European language combinations.

User Manuals and Operating Manuals

Complete user guides and operating manuals for industrial equipment, consumer devices, medical instruments, and software products — across all language combinations required for international distribution.

Installation and Commissioning Documentation

Installation guides, commissioning procedures, site preparation requirements, and setup instructions for machinery, energy systems, and technical equipment.

Maintenance and Service Documentation

Scheduled maintenance procedures, service intervals, component replacement instructions, calibration guides, and preventive maintenance materials for industrial and technical equipment.

Safety Documentation and Safety Data Sheets

Safety instructions, hazard warnings, MSDS/SDS documentation, CE compliance materials, and safety-critical operational content — translated with the precision that safety documentation requires in every target language.

Technical Specifications and Datasheets

Component specifications, performance data, technical parameters, product comparison sheets, and detailed technical product descriptions.

Software and System Documentation

Technical user guides, system documentation, help files, XML and HTML resources, UI strings, and embedded documentation for software products, control systems, and technology platforms.

Declarations of Conformity and Quality Documentation

CE declarations, quality manuals, conformity documentation, and regulated technical documentation for products entering European and international markets.

Engineering and Infrastructure Documentation

Technical tender documents, system plans, network plans, engineering descriptions, and infrastructure project materials.

Clients We Have Supported

A selection of organizations we have delivered technical translation projects for — across manufacturing, aviation IT, energy, electronics, and industrial sectors.

L
Lufthansa Systems 30 projects

Aviation IT, enterprise software and technical documentation. A multi-million-word localization of a complete enterprise aviation management system, including TOMAS system content, active HTML documentation across 100+ files, and Visio technical diagrams — between English and German. Formal letter of recommendation issued.

English ↔ GermanAviation ITEnterprise Software
D
Delta Plus 40 projects · 385 jobs · Client since 2005

PPE, safety products and multilingual technical documentation. Product descriptions, user instructions, and safety equipment content translated from English and French into Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, and others.

22 languagesSafety EquipmentSDS
DS
DS Smith116 projects · 143 jobs

Industrial packaging, manufacturing and operational documentation. Machine manuals, safety documentation, audit interpreting, and operational materials across English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Czech, and Spanish. One of our longest ongoing technical documentation relationships.

7 languagesMachine Manuals
3D
3DHISTECH17 projects · 26 jobs

Digital pathology scanner systems and medical imaging documentation. User guides, CaseManager documentation, and scanner manuals translated from English and Hungarian into French, German, Italian, Russian, Polish, Spanish, and Swedish.

7 languagesMedical DevicesSoftware
F
Flextronics International218 projects · Client since 2008

Electronics manufacturing documentation, work instructions, contracts, safety documentation, and technical manuals into all EU languages and Ukrainian. Multi-week on-site interpreting at production facilities.

All EU languagesUkrainianOn-site Interpreting
K
Knorr-Bremse26 projects · 29 jobs

Railway braking system technical manuals, customer handbooks, and training documentation between English, German, Hungarian, Spanish, and Chinese.

5 languagesRailwayTechnical Manuals
S
SIEL Energy & Safety24 projects · 32 jobs

Power protection, UPS systems and industrial energy equipment documentation. Installation and user manuals translated between Italian, English, French, Spanish, and Arabic.

5 languagesEnergyUPS Systems
SA
Sealed Air28 projects · 36 jobs

Machine manuals, MSDS documentation, and packaging equipment materials across 10 languages.

10 languagesPackagingMSDS
M
MKR Metzger24 projects · 28 jobs

Operating manuals for water recycling and process media systems from German into 9 languages.

9 languagesProcess Engineering
P
Photomate14 projects · 20 jobs

Solar inverter and photovoltaic technical documentation. SUN2000 user manuals and SmartLogger documentation between English and Hungarian.

English ↔ HungarianSolar Energy
HT
Hydro-Thermal5 projects · 9 jobs

Thermal process equipment and industrial system documentation. Installation, operation, and maintenance manuals translated from English into Finnish, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.

6 languagesIndustrial Systems

Language Coverage

We translate technical documentation across all major European languages and selected non-European directions commonly required for industrial product distribution and software localization.

European

English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Romanian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Greek, Russian, Ukrainian.

Non-European

Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, Korean — documented in active technical translation and localization programs.

German-Source Expertise

For German-source technical documentation — the dominant source language in European industrial, engineering, and machinery documentation — we are particularly well resourced, with translators experienced in Betriebsanleitung, Wartungsanleitung, and Bedienungsanleitung documentation across all major target languages.

File Formats and DTP

We handle translation workflows for all standard technical documentation formats. For InDesign and DTP source files, we manage text expansion and return print-ready files in each target language.

Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint
Adobe InDesign (.indd / .idml) — translated and returned print-ready
XML, HTML, PHP — including structured localization files
SDLXLIFF and XLIFF — standard translation package formats
PDF — text extraction where no source file is available
Proprietary and custom formats — assessed on request before quoting

Quality Process

All technical translation is delivered under our ISO 17100:2015 certified quality process — applied to every project without exception.

01
Subject-matter qualified translation

Translation by a professional with a technical background in the relevant engineering, industrial, or technology domain.

02
Mandatory independent revision

Every translation is reviewed by a second qualified linguist — checking accuracy, completeness, terminology consistency, and register.

03
Terminology management

Client-specific glossaries maintained and applied across all projects and all language versions.

04
Translation memory

Previously approved translations applied consistently across document versions, reducing update costs and enforcing consistency.

05
DTP and formatting check

Layout verified before delivery where applicable — including text expansion management for longer target languages.

Multilingual Technical Programs

For manufacturers and technology companies distributing products internationally, technical documentation is rarely a one-language, one-project requirement. A product entering 12 markets requires 12 language versions of its manual — all consistent with each other, all delivered before the launch date, all maintainable as the product evolves.

We manage this as a coordinated program: unified source management, shared terminology across all language versions, translation memory maintained across all releases, and parallel delivery into all languages simultaneously. When documentation is updated, only changed content requires new translation — approved unchanged sections are reused from the TM.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do your translators have technical backgrounds?
Yes. We assign technical projects to translators with professional or academic backgrounds in the relevant engineering, industrial, or technology domain — not general translators.
Can you handle InDesign-format technical manuals?
Yes. We translate InDesign source files and return print-ready target-language files, with layout adjusted for text expansion where required.
Can you manage multilingual technical programs across many languages simultaneously?
Yes. Simultaneous delivery into multiple languages from a single source, with consistent terminology and a single project management contact, is a standard operational capability.
How do you handle updates to previously translated documentation?
Through maintained translation memories. Only changed content requires new translation — unchanged sections are reused from the TM, ensuring version consistency at lower cost.
What file formats do you work with?
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, InDesign (.idml), XML, HTML, SDLXLIFF, XLIFF, PDF (with assessment), and most standard localization formats. Contact us with your specific format and we will confirm compatibility before quoting.

Ready to discuss your technical translation project?

Send us your technical documentation and we will prepare a detailed proposal — including pricing per language, turnaround time, DTP scope where applicable, and delivery format.