48 Examples of Capital Equipment

John Spacey, February 11, 2022

Capital equipment is physical equipment that is expected to produce future value for a business. This includes any significant purchase that is durable and required for your business to operate. Capital equipment lasts longer than a year and isn't a consumable supply. The following are illustrative examples of capital equipment.

Aircraft	Audio / Visual Equipment
Building Systems	Cleaning Equipment
Commercial Appliances	Commercial Kitchen Equipment
Company Vehicles	Computers
Construction Equipment	Docks
Elevators	Energy Infrastructure
Excavating Equipment	Fences
Fishing Gear & Nets	Food Processing Equipment
Forklifts	Furniture & Fixtures
Garages	Grandstands
Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning	IT Infrastructure
Lab Equipment	Leisure Equipment
Lighting Systems	Machine Tools
Manufacturing Equipment	Media Equipment
Mining Equipment	Mobile Devices
Musical Instruments	Point of Sale Systems
Recreational Equipment	Safety Equipment
Satellites	Scientific Instruments
Security Systems	Self-checkout Systems
Shipping Equipment	Ships
Swimming Pools	Theme Park Attractions
Tools	Tractors
Transportation Infrastructure	Trucks
Vending Machines	Warehouse Racks

Firms set a capitalization limit to decide if a purchase is large enough to be considered capital. Tax authorities in many jurisdictions set this limit for small businesses. For example, a tool that is under $500 might be expensed such that it's not considered capital.

What is capital to one business may not be capital to another. For example, a hotel swimming pool is clearly capital as it produces value for a business. If you're an IT consultant -- your swimming pool isn't capital as its unrelated to your business model.