As technological progress moves on, specialization becomes a fact of life in virtually every industry. When companies in the engineering and IT sector wish to enter a foreign market, they require translation services to localize their product descriptions. However, like the IT and engineering companies themselves, translation companies also have their own specialization.

When a customer is aiming to translate a document in the scientific or industrial field,  technical translation services are called for. Technical translation is quite different from general translation. General translation is normally carried out by the translators without any need for specialized knowledge. On the other hand, technical translations will require the translators to understand a range of technical terms and possess relevant industrial knowledge, in order to produce a technically sound document in the target language.

Technical Translation Example

Perhaps it would be helpful to illustrate the differences between technical and general translation with a few examples. When a pharmaceutical company wishes to have a description of its product translated from English into a different language, a technical translator must take into account the suitable medical and chemical terminology to ensure his translation is faithful to the original.. Since technical translations requires the translators to possess working knowledge of medicine, chemistry  or pharmaceuticals, they are usually doctors or chemists who are working part-time as professional translators. It is also common to find these highly skilled technical translators to be university academics in the bio-chemical or medical field.

Business Technical Translations

Not everyone needs professional technical translations. However, it is frequently used by businesses in various industries, such as:

* Mechanical and electrical engineering companies (e.g. engine specifications) *Equipment manufacturers (e.g. user manuals) * Medical labs and hospitals (e.g. health reports) * Food and beverage companies (e.g. nutrition facts labels) * Pharmaceutical companies (e.g. drug descriptions) * Law firms (e.g. legal contracts) * Financial institutions (e.g. accounting reports and forecasting)

All the above industries, and more, rely on accurate use of terminology, and technical translations play a pivotal role in getting the right message across. Professional technical translations will help to ensure coherency in the translated documents.

The Technical Translation Process

The technical translation process is divided into several stages. Once a mechanical engineering companys elects a professional translation company to carry out a technical translation (e.g. from English to French), the project manager will look into the company's linguist database for the best suited candidate. He or she will then select a French translator who is a native French speaker and also has a qualification in mechanical engineering or work experience in the same industry.

When the technical translation is complete, the project manager selects another French translator with the same qualification to proof-read the text. The purpose of proofreading is to ensure that the technical translation is accurate and coherent before delivering it back to the client. It is common for professional translation companies to provide quality assurance, where the technical translations can be modified to the satisfaction of the customer.

Conclusion

In order to achieve accurate translation results on a specialzed document, one should always consider utilizing professional technical translations services.