General terms of payment and delivery

1 General conditions

1.1 Place of performance, place of jurisdiction and applicable law
The place of fulfillment and jurisdiction for all services, deliveries and payments is the location of the Contractor's branch office. The contract is subject to the law of the Federal Republic of Germany. The application of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (UN Sales Convention) of April 11, 1980 is excluded.

1.2 Terms of contract
The Contractor's offers are subject to change. All incoming orders shall only become binding upon receipt of the order confirmation or upon its execution. Clause 2.2 remains unaffected. The Contractor shall also be entitled to reject orders placed by the Client on the basis of contracts and to refuse to fulfill orders placed if it becomes apparent that its claim to payment would be jeopardized due to the Client's inability to pay. The Contractor is entitled to terminate orders without notice if there is good cause to do so. § Section 321 BGB and other statutory rights to refuse performance and rights of retention shall remain unaffected. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, orders shall only be executed in accordance with the above conditions. Terms and conditions of purchase and other terms and conditions of business of the client shall not be recognized, even if they are not expressly contradicted. Verbal collateral agreements require written confirmation by the contracting parties to be effective.

1.3 Force majeure
Force majeure, labor disputes, riots, armed conflicts, terrorist attacks, official measures, epidemics and other unforeseeable, unavoidable and serious events shall release the contractual partners from their performance obligations for the duration of the disruption and to the extent of its effect. This shall also apply if these events occur at a time when the affected contractual partner is in default, unless it has caused the default intentionally or through gross negligence. The contractual partners are obliged to provide the necessary information without delay within the scope of what is reasonable and to adapt their obligations to the changed circumstances in good faith.

1.4 Pricing
Prices are quoted in euros ex works excluding VAT and costs for any packaging. If order-related costs change by more than 10% after conclusion of the contract, each contracting party shall be entitled to demand an appropriate adjustment of the prices taking these factors into account.

1.5 Payment
If no special agreements exist, invoices are payable immediately upon receipt without any deductions. If payment is not made within 14 days of receipt of the invoice, statutory default interest and the statutory lump sum for damages shall be charged. The client's right of retention or set-off is excluded, unless counterclaims are undisputed or have been recognized by declaratory judgment.

1.6 Lien
The Contractor shall have a lien on the Client's workpieces for all present and future claims as soon as they are handed over for heat treatment. Sections 1204 et seq. BGB apply accordingly.

2 Terms of execution and delivery

2.1 Information from the client

2.1.1 Heat treatment
All components handed over for heat treatment must be accompanied by an order or delivery bill containing the following information:

2.1.1. a ) Description of the parts, quantity, value of the parts, net weight and type of packaging;
2.1.1. b ) Material quality (standard designation or steel brand and steel manufacturer);
2.1.1. c ) the desired heat treatment, in particular

2.1.1. c ) a ) during carburizing, the required carburizing depth with limiting carbon content (e.g. CD 0.35 = 0.8+0.4 mm);
2.1.1. c ) b ) for case hardening or carbonitriding, the prescribed case hardening depth (CHD) with specification of the limit hardness and the desired surface hardness (e.g. CHD550 HV1 = 0.8+0.4 mm, surface hardness = 57+6 HRC);
2.1.1. c ) c ) for hardening, the desired hardness test method according to Vickers or Rockwell, stating the required hardness value (e.g. 57+6 HRC or 600+150 HV10). Unless otherwise agreed, the test is carried out on the surface of the components;
2.1.1. c ) d ) for nitrocarburizing, the thickness of the compound layer (CLT) or the treatment duration (e.g. CLT = 10+10 μm or nitrocarburizing 2 hours)
2.1.1. c ) e ) for surface hardening, the prescribed surface hardening depth (SHD) with the desired surface hardness (e.g. SHD500 = 1.2 +1.0 mm, surface hardness = 57+6 HRC), as well as the position of the area to be hardened.

2.1.1. d ) Details of the desired test method, the test body and the test person (see DIN test standards).
2.1.1. e ) Information on the subsequent intended use and in particular on any safety relevance of the component; and other information or regulations necessary for the success of the treatment in accordance with the currently applicable technical standards.
2.1.1. f ) Further information or specifications necessary for the success of the treatment (see DIN ISO 15787, 17014, 17021, 17022, 17023).If partial hardening is required, drawings must be included showing which areas must be hardened or remain soft. If similar workpieces are made from different steel melts, this must be specified. Similarly, special requirements for dimensional accuracy or surface condition must be noted on the delivery documents. Welded or soldered workpieces and those containing hollow bodies must be specially indicated by the customer.The Contractor shall check the information provided by the Client for content and completeness to the best of its knowledge. The Contractor shall inform the Client if there are any concerns about successful heat treatment.

2.1.2 Assembly

2.1.2 a ) Designation of the parts, quantity and type of packaging.
2.1.2 b ) Material quality (standard designation or steel brand).
2.1.2 c ) Parts lists, drawings and specifications.

2.2 Delivery time
The delivery period shall commence as soon as the contracting parties have clarified all execution details and the Client has fulfilled all requirements. However, the delivery time shall only be deemed to have been agreed as approximate and shall be extended appropriately - even within a delay in delivery - in the event of unforeseeable obstacles which the Contractor was unable to avert despite taking reasonable care in the circumstances of the case. Unforeseeable hindrances include, in particular, any necessary, initially unrecognizable multiple treatments, delivery that is not free of defects and/or not on time and difficult disruptions in the Contractor's own operations, such as strikes, lockouts, accidents, transport difficulties, lack of operating materials, difficulties in energy supply and disruptions in the operations of suppliers. If the Contractor can foresee that it will not be able to meet the delivery time, it shall inform the Client immediately, inform it of the reasons for this and - if possible - state a new delivery date.

2.3 Transfer of risk
Goods provided by the client for heat treatment and assembly must be delivered at the client's expense and risk and collected after completion. Upon request, the Contractor shall take over the complete logistics for a fee, and the risk shall pass to the Client upon handover to the forwarding agent or carrier or upon commencement of storage, but at the latest upon leaving the factory or warehouse, even if the Contractor has taken over the delivery and removal with its own fleet of vehicles.

2.3.1 Packaging
The packaging (provided by the customer) must be selected in such a way that a hard/soft separation is safely possible and damage during transportation is avoided. The contractor accepts no liability for mixing or damage caused by unsuitable packaging.

2.4 Testing
The workpieces shall be inspected by random sampling before leaving the Contractor's company. A more extensive inspection shall only be carried out on the basis of special agreements. The Contractor's outgoing inspection does not release the Client from its obligation to inspect incoming goods. Before further use, the Client shall ensure that the heat treatment material meets the requirements. The necessary tests or other activities shall be carried out for this purpose. With regard to the heat treatment to be carried out, the Client shall be responsible for the production of the workpieces in accordance with the rules of technology, for the correctness and completeness of the required information in accordance with Section II.1 and for a heat treatment specification adapted to the later intended use.

2.5 Product safetyOur contribution to product safety is a QM system certified in accordance with IATF 16949, which is geared towards error prevention and is subject to a continuous improvement process. To identify product risks, we carry out a plausibility and feasibility check of customer requirements within this framework. We will be happy to send you further explanations on this subject area on request. Parts requiring documentation, parts with special features and parts with documents with special archiving (DmbA) must be marked as such by our customers.

2.6 Warranty
Goods for heat treatment and assembly shall be handled with the necessary care and manufactured using suitable means. In doing so, the Contractor shall comply with the official requirements and the relevant applicable statutory regulations of the European Union (EU) and the Federal Republic of Germany. This applies, for example, where relevant, to the REACH Regulation (Regulation EC No. 1907/2006), the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Substances Ordinance (ElektroStoffV), the End-of-Life Vehicles Ordinance (AltfahrzeugV) and the Packaging Act (VerpackG) as German implementations of the corresponding EU directives. No guarantee is given for the success of the heat treatment, the achievement of a certain quality, the suitability for a certain use or the achievement of certain results, e.g. with regard to freedom from distortion and cracks, surface hardness, hardening, through-hardening, galvanizability, etc., due to possible different hardenability of the material used, hidden defects, unfavourable shaping or possible changes made in the previous work process. The shrinkage that is customary in the industry and occurs to a reasonable extent during the hardening process of mass-produced items and small parts shall also not justify any claims for defects. If the Contractor carries out straightening work at the Client's request, it shall not be liable for any breakage that may occur in the process. No guarantee can be given for the success of the application of insulating agents against carburization or nitriding. If the heat treatment or assembly does not lead to success because:

2.6 a ) the client provided incomplete or incorrect information as required in sections 2.1.1 and 2.1.2;
2.6 b ) the contractor was not and could not have been aware of hidden defects in the semi-finished product and workpiece before carrying out the heat treatment or assembly, or;
2.6 c ) because properties of the material used, the shaping or the condition of the delivered workpieces made the success of the heat treatment impossible, but the contractor did not know and could not have known this,

2.7 the service rendered shall nevertheless be paid for. Necessary subsequent treatments shall be invoiced separately under the aforementioned conditions.All defects must be reported to the Contractor in writing immediately, but no later than 3 weeks after the transfer of risk. Hidden defects must be reported in writing immediately after discovery, but no later than 6 months after the transfer of risk. The Contractor must be given the opportunity to inspect and rectify any complaints.

2.8 Complaints must be reported immediately in writing. Any necessary subsequent treatment shall be carried out after consultation with the Client and, unless otherwise agreed, shall be invoiced separately. The Client's claims for subsequent treatment or compensation for damages due to any culpable breach of contractual obligations by the Contractor shall remain unaffected. If, in exceptional cases, a service under a contract for work and services has been commissioned, the limitation period for claims for defects shall be 12 months from the transfer of risk, unless longer periods are prescribed by law.

2.9 In the case of heat treatment, the Contractor shall only provide compensation for damage caused by defects for which the Contractor is responsible up to the amount of the treatment fee. In this case, the Contractor shall, at the Client's discretion, either credit the amount or treat the corresponding workpieces free of charge. The warranty periods and limitations shall also apply to any subsequent treatment. If rejected workpieces have been processed or further processed without the written consent of the Contractor, the warranty shall lapse and no claims for damages can be asserted for the shrinkage that is customary in the industry and process-related during the heat treatment process of mass-produced items and small parts. If the Contractor carries out straightening work at the Client's request, it shall not be liable for any breakage that may occur in the process. No guarantee can be given for the success of the application of insulating agents against carburization or nitriding.

2.10 Liability
Unless otherwise stated below, other and further claims of the client are excluded. With regard to the heat treatment and/or assembly to be carried out, the Client shall be responsible for the production or pre-processing of the workpieces and the material provided in accordance with the rules of technology, for the correctness and completeness of the required information in accordance with 2.1.1 and 2.1.2 for a specification, heat treatment or production specification adapted to the later intended use and information on other order documents; this shall apply in particular to claims for damages due to breach of duties arising from the contractual obligation and from tort. The Contractor shall not be liable for loss of profit or other financial losses of the Client. He shall also not be liable for damages resulting from a treatment proposed by him and approved by the client. The above limitations of liability shall not apply in the event of intent, gross negligence on the part of the Contractor's legal representatives or executives or in the event of culpable breach of material contractual obligations. In the event of culpable breach of material contractual obligations, the Contractor shall be liable - except in cases of intent or gross negligence on the part of its legal representatives or executives - only for reasonably foreseeable damage typical of the contract. Furthermore, the limitations of liability shall not apply in cases in which liability exists under the Product Liability Act for personal injury or property damage to privately used objects in the event of defects in the products supplied. They shall also not apply in the event of injury to life, limb or health and in the absence of warranted characteristics or in the absence of a guaranteed quality, if and insofar as the purpose of the warranty or guarantee was precisely to protect the Client against damage that did not occur to the heat treatment goods themselves. Insofar as the Contractor's liability is excluded or limited, this shall also apply to the personal liability of its employees, workers, staff, legal representatives and vicarious agents.In the case of bulk material processes in heat treatment, in particular on continuous systems, a very small proportion of possible mixing of parts, foreign parts and/or possible hardness deviations can always be statistically expected (in the ppm range => generally known state of the art, see e.g. DIN EN ISO 16426) and therefore does not constitute a reason for complaint, ppm agreements can be made.

2.11 Partnership clause
The economic circumstances of the contracting parties, the nature, scope and duration of the business relationships and the order value of the heat treatment services shall be taken into account appropriately in good faith in all compensation payments by the Contractor, in particular with regard to the amount of compensation.