SUMMARY

Quality Codes

This web page identifies specific quality requirements that may be levied on suppliers, distributors, and/or sub-tier contractors, who provide goods or services to Castheon. These Quality requirements, codes and clauses are intended to be in addition to procurement action requirements.

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General Requirements

The requirements below are applicable to all POs referencing Castheon Quality codes:

2.1. If a Supplier cannot comply with any applicable quality requirement listed within a quality code or quality clause of a purchase order (PO), resolution and/or changes to the requirements must be obtained via written approval (e.g. email or PO update) prior to acceptance of the Castheon purchase order.

2.2. The primary point-of-contact for any modification to the Suppliers PO/Contract shall be the Castheon
program manager.

2.3. Distributors, as the direct Supplier to Castheon, as well as, the original Manufacturer, are responsible
for compliance with all purchase order requirements. The applicable requirements of all quality codes, quality clauses, and any technical requirements listed on the purchase order, will apply to both the Distributor and the Manufacturer of the product. All reasonable measures shall be taken by the Distributor and Manufacturer to validate all items sold to Castheon are from an authorized source and certify that all materials provided are not counterfeit articles. If any Distributor items or materials are discovered to be counterfeit, from any source, Castheon shall be immediately notified in writing.

2.4. All data, documents, and any certificates of conformance from the Supplier and sub-tiers shall be in English, or contain an English translation, and must be signed by a company Quality representative.

2.5. Record Retention: All assembly/production/programing documents, material certifications (including
inserts/hardware), supplier generated quality documents (C of C, FAI reports, inspection records, and discrepancy reports), Castheon models, POs and any customer related flow down documents shall be archived for 10 years and available upon request unless otherwise requested via PO after which the Supplier agrees to either return or destroy related records.

2.6. Supplier must comply with all applicable laws and regulations, employee competent personnel to ensure Buyer’s requirements are met, and be committed to the highest standards of ethics and business conduct. Supplier must not engage in unfair business practices (i.e. business gifts, etc.), and should avoid involvement in activities that could be perceived as a conflict-of-interest. Supplier to enforce all product safety requirements, including the management of critical items and key characteristics.

2.7. Supplier shall communicate any concerns regarding product safety to Castheon. Supplier will ensure
that employees and people working on its behalf are aware of:

• Their contribution to product or service conformity
• Their contribution to product safety
• The importance of ethical behavior

Quality Codes

The following Quality codes are only invoked when included on the Purchase Order.

The seller shall implement and maintain an industry recognized Quality Management System. Castheon reserves the right to review the Supplier’s Quality Management System.

The Supplier shall provide with each shipment a legible Certificate of Conformance which states that the items were produced, processed, and/or tested in accordance with stated applicable purchase order or subcontract requirements. Certifications shall be signed by a company Quality Assurance
Representative or Responsible Company Official. The following information is required on the certification at a minimum:

Purchase Order Number
Castheon part number, revision, and quantity.
Serial numbers or Lot numbers of Serialized or Lot Serialized parts must appear on the C of C.

Powder producers and distributors shall operate under SAE AS9100 or SAE AS9120 Quality Management Systems, or an equivalent approved by the Castheon.

A certificate of compliance shall be provided for all levied requirements along with identifiers for each powder heat and blended lot and the date(s) and location(s) of powder production. The certification package should include the following, at minimum:

*Country of origin
Specifying unambiguously the method of powder manufacture.
Specifying powder chemistry requirements, including acceptable methods of measurement and tolerance.
Specifying particle size distribution (PSD) requirements and the acceptable methods for powder sampling and determining the PSD, including explicit limits in weight percent on the quantity of coarse and fine particles outside the PSD range.
Specifying, at least qualitatively, the mean particle shape (powder morphology) and limits on satellite/agglomerated particles using standardized terminology/methodology.
Statement that post-production additions to the powder lot for control of PSD or chemistry (doping) was not performed.
Providing requirements for powder cleanliness and contamination control, including moisture content for sensitive materials.
Providing requirements for powder packaging, labeling, and environmental controls.
Specifying rheological (flow and spreading) behavior of the powder and associated method of verification.
Specifying powder crystallinity morphology control, such as solvent processing procedures and heat treatments, if applicable.

*Per DFARS 252.225-7052: the Contractor shall not deliver under this contract any Tungsten metal powder produced in any covered country, or any end item, manufactured in any covered country, that contains Tungsten metal powder.

Covered countries are:

The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea
The People’s Republic of China
The Russian Federation
The Islamic Republic of Iran

Supplier shall furnish applicable furnace records.

Supplier shall furnish a legible copy of applicable test reports of the processes performed and include the results for each unit examined indicating either accepted or rejected. When parts are serialized, serial numbers must appear on the report(s). In a case where serial numbers are not required, traceability information must be provided (I.e. lot number). Results must be identifiable with test parameters, specifications, and material(s) to product(s) delivered. Reports must bear the date and signature of a responsible representative of the agency performing the test(s). The specifications must be listed, including the revision letter(s) or revision number(s).

Nonconforming items shall not be shipped unless authorized in writing by the Castheon Quality representative. A nonconformance that cannot be returned to conformance may be submitted to Castheon for consideration but is not a guarantee for acceptance. Authority for a disposition of “Repair” and/or “Use As-Is” dispositions shall come from Castheon Quality engineering. Use of the Castheon NCR form for reporting nonconformance is preferred – the form can be obtained by contacting your Castheon buyer or quality representative.

Castheon reserves the right to assign representatives for any purpose including verifying all tests and/or inspections performed as a part of the terms and conditions of this purchase order(s). Suppliers shall provide Castheon representatives access to all areas essential to complete this task throughout all periods of performance under this purchase order(s).

The Supplier shall permit access to applicable areas of its facility and to applicable documented information to the Buyer, its Buyer’s customers, and regulatory authorities. This requirement shall be flown down and applies to any level of the supply chain.

Source Inspection may be conducted by the Buyer at the Supplier’s facilities or
where designated in this Order prior to shipment. Inspection/test and/or in-process inspection/test of the articles specified in this Order must be performed by the Supplier and may be witnessed by the Buyer’s Quality Representative. Prior to fabrication start, the Supplier and the Buyer must determine the process steps at which Source Inspection must be conducted. The Supplier must notify the Buyer of the scheduled inspection/test five (5) days in advance. The method of product release must be a stamp or signature by the Buyer’s Quality Representative on the Supplier’s shipping or inspection documents.

100% inspection of each delivered unit, per the provided engineering drawing (or alternative documentation), is required. The inspection report is to be delivered along with the physical hardware (electronic transmission is allowable).

First Article Inspection (FAI) shall be performed by Seller in accordance with the requirements of AS9102. The relevant bubble drawing shall be included for reference.

Where the Supplier is authorized to inspection per sample inspection plans or other statistical techniques, these must be statistically valid. If the sample contains rejected items, the Supplier must, for the rejected feature or parameter, use a documented method, such as 100% screening to assure the buyer that zero rejects are present.

The seller end items shall be identified with Castheon provided serial numbers when defined in applicable drawings, specifications, and/or the purchase order. Serial numbers shall not be duplicated. Serial numbers shall provide full traceability to all material, fabrication, assembly, inspection, and test documentation.

The Supplier must maintain hardware traceability. The Supplier may use the original Lot/Date Code/Serial number or their own method for identifying the end item product as required for proper traceability. Serialized shipments must have the serial numbers listed on the shipper and on the corresponding intermediate packaging.

Items furnished under this Purchase Order shall be identical in configuration, form, fit, function, and performance to the product previously approved by Castheon. Supplier shall ensure that only Castheon-authorized changes are incorporated into engineering documents, process planning, and hardware. Before applying changes, the Supplier shall notify the Buyer of changes to processes, products, or services, including changes in their external providers or location of manufacture, and obtain the Buyer’s approval.

The Supplier shall maintain a calibration system that complies with one of the following specifications (or an equivalent): ANSI Z540.1 or ISO/IEC 17025. This provision shall be applicable to all inspection, test and measuring equipment used by the supplier or supplied by Castheon for inspection or test. All test equipment and gages used must be traceable to NIST standards.

For Non-AS9100 approved suppliers. AS9100 requires this already. Supplier must ensure that the clauses associated with this purchase order are flowed down to all its sub-tier suppliers. Supplier is required to direct all its external providers to ensure that the requirements of the final product are met.

For Non-AS9100 approved suppliers. AS9100 requires this already. Supplier shall take steps to mitigate contamination by foreign objects/debris throughout the manufacture, assembly, test, and shipping processes. The Supplier will document, investigate, determine root cause, and eliminate repetitive nonconformance related to Foreign Object Debris (FOD) incidents. In addition, packaging materials that generate particles, fibers, or other debris are not acceptable. Specification NAS 412 is recommended to be used as a guide for FOD programs.

This purchase order contains special processes. Special Processes shall be performed by Castheon approved processors or NADCAP approved processors. The Supplier must submit a certification listing the specification designation/number and that the special process was performed to.

When design and development activities are applicable to the product/services provided by Supplier, the Supplier agrees to maintain adequate design and development control including proper review, validation, and verification activities. Supplier also agrees to control design changes and maintain records as appropriate.

For Non-AS9100 approved suppliers. AS9100 requires this already.
Supplier shall establish and maintain controls which seek to prevent the purchase and delivery of Suspect and Counterfeit Parts to Castheon. Supplier shall only purchase products to be delivered to Castheon directly from the Original Component Manufacturer (OCM)/Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) or through an OCM/OEM authorized distributor chain. Parts shall not be acquired by the supplier and furnished to Castheon from independent distributors or brokers unless approved in advance and in writing by
Castheon. Supplier shall immediately notify Castheon with the pertinent facts if the
Supplier becomes aware that it has furnished Suspect or Counterfeit parts. After such notification, when requested by Castheon, Supplier shall provide copies of OCM/OEM documentation in its possession that authenticates traceability (up to and including other testing validation methods) of the affected items to the applicable OCM/OEM.

The supplier shall participate in the Government-Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP) in accordance with the GIDEP Operations Manual available from the GIDEP Operations Center, PO Box 8000, Corona, California 91718-8000. If a GIDEP affects the contract/program, the supplier shall notify the Buyer of such impact.