CNC Machining Supplier for German Buyers

German drawings arrive complete, and that helps

A drawing from a German engineering department is usually finished work. Every dimension carries a tolerance instead of falling back on the general block, every thread is called out with its standard, the surface is specified to a DIN EN ISO number rather than "as machined", and the material is a Werkstoffnummer with a heat-treatment condition attached. We spend less time asking questions on these than on drawings from almost anywhere else.

The one place it goes wrong is the material number itself. A setter on this side of the world sees 304 where the drawing says 1.4301 and the substitution looks free. Usually it is free. Then a drawing says 1.4034, somebody reads it as 440C because both are "the hard stainless", the parts come off the grinder at 52 HRC instead of 58, and the mistake is only visible at incoming inspection in Baden-Württemberg.

So we confirm the grade in writing before any bar stock is ordered. 1.4301 is 304. 1.4404 is 316L. 1.7225 is 42CrMo4, which is AISI 4140, and if your drawing instead says 1.6582 that is 34CrNiMo6 and closer to 4340 — a different steel with a different price. If the numbers cannot be reconciled we say so rather than pick the nearest one. There is a longer cross-reference table on our European buyers page.

The paperwork German quality departments actually ask for

Almost every first order from Germany comes with a request for an Erstmusterprüfbericht. We issue a first-article inspection report where every numbered dimension on your drawing appears as a line, with the nominal, the tolerance, the measured value and a pass mark. It is boring work and it is the reason the report takes a few days after the first parts are finished.

Alongside it: EN 10204 3.1 material certificates traceable to the heat number, CMM dimensional reports per batch, and a material declaration covering RoHS (2011/65/EU) and REACH (EC 1907/2006) with an SVHC statement for the substances we control. We hold ISO 9001:2015 (NOA198428, valid to 2028-06-30) and ISO 14001:2015 (NOA2100184, valid to 2027-01-04), both issued by NOA, an IAF Multilateral Recognition Arrangement member.

What we do not hold is IATF 16949 or ISO 13485. If your supplier evaluation scores those as mandatory, we will fail it and it is better to know that before the audit than after. Automotive and medical programmes that only need the parts, documented to the drawing, are a different question and we take those regularly.

Quoting in German, machining to metric

Quotes and order confirmations are handled in German by our sales team, and there is a full German-language site at chxmetal.com/de/. Technical discussions tend to run in English — the vocabulary for a deburring spec or a fixture problem is faster in English on both sides — and the open points get a German summary afterwards so nothing depends on who understood what.

Everything is metric. GD&T to ISO 1101, metric threads to ISO/DIN, tolerances expressed as plus or minus 0.005 mm on critical features and verified on a CMM rather than by gauge. If a drawing arrives in inches we convert once, at the quotation stage, and show the conversion on the quote so you can check it.

Surface treatment is quoted to the standard, not to a colour name: zinc plating to DIN EN ISO 2081, anodising to DIN EN ISO 7599, passivation to ASTM A967 or the DIN equivalent you name. In-house we run anodising, zinc and nickel plating, passivation, black oxide, powder coating and laser marking; anything outside that goes to a vendor we have used for years.

Getting parts to Germany without a surprise invoice

We quote FOB Shenzhen, CIF or DDP to your address. On DDP we carry freight, insurance and clearance and show German import VAT at 19% as a separate line, which your accountant needs in order to reclaim it. On FOB or CIF the VAT and the customs entry land on your side and your forwarder handles them.

Air freight reaches Frankfurt or Munich in 5 to 7 days door to door. Sea freight into Hamburg runs 30 to 35 days, and for a pallet of housings that is usually the sensible choice — the difference in freight is real money once a shipment passes a few hundred kilos. We will tell you which one we would pick rather than quoting both and leaving it.

Terms are 30% by T/T with the order, 70% before dispatch. A prototype by DHL or FedEx takes 3 to 5 days to most German addresses and costs roughly EUR 25–40 under a kilo, billed at cost with the waybill attached. The sample charge is credited against the production order.

Questions that come up before the first order

How many parts do we have to order?

One. The price per piece falls steeply between 1 and 500 and then flattens. If you are validating a design, order one and check the fit before talking about volume.

What capacity sits behind a series order?

220 machines — 100 CNC machining centres, of which 30 are five-axis, 50 CNC lathes and 70 Tsugami Swiss-type sliding-headstock lathes. Monthly output runs to about 5 million pieces across the plant, most of it small turned parts.

Who owns the fixtures?

You do, in practice. Soft jaws and fixtures cut for your part number are labelled and kept for your runs and are not used on anyone else's job. Ask for them to be shipped and we crate them; ask for them to be scrapped and we send photographs of the scrap.

How fast is a quote?

Within 12 working hours for a drawing with tolerances on it. A STEP file with no drawing takes longer, because we have to ask what matters.

Can you hold a delivery date?

We quote dates we can hold and we would rather quote four weeks and deliver in three than the reverse. We have lost orders by quoting the honest number when someone else quoted three weeks — that happens, and it is still the right way round.

Send a drawing, get a DFM review and a DDP price

2D PDF, STEP or a sample in the post. Quotes back within 12 working hours.

Request a quotation

Shenzhen Changhexin Precision Hardware Co., Ltd. (CHX Metal) · Shajing Street, Bao'an District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China · ISO 9001:2015 (NOA198428) · ISO 14001:2015 (NOA2100184) · NDA and IP protection · Contact