Short answer
A warranty is not a promise that the attachment will not break; it is a promise that if a manufacturing or material defect appears, it is the maker’s responsibility. That distinction explains nearly every argument about cover: wear parts sit outside because wearing out is expected behaviour rather than a defect; usage related damage sits outside because its cause is not in manufacture. This guide does not state HKM’s own warranty terms; it describes general commercial practice. The cover on your own attachment is written in your sales documents.
The basic distinction: defect or wear?
A warranty assessment can be reduced to one question: would this failure have happened had the attachment been used correctly? If yes, a manufacturing or material defect is discussed; if no, it is usage related.
Wear parts cannot pass that question at all. Tools wear, bushings wear, seals tire; their ending is designed behaviour, not a defect. Which is why almost every warranty text keeps wear parts outside cover.
But the line is not always clean. A wear part that ends far earlier than expected can raise a material defect question. What decides it is the conditions that part worked in and for how long, which again means the record.
Usually outside cover
- Wear parts: tool, bushings, seals, retaining pin and the like.
- Damage from misuse: levering, dragging, blank firing, lifting.
- Running outside the range: damage arising while machine flow or pressure sat outside the attachment’s range.
- Neglected maintenance: wear marks showing that greasing was not done or that the wrong grease was used.
- Unauthorised intervention: welding, drilling or modification to the body without approval.
- Internal damage from contaminated hydraulic oil: its cause lies in the machine’s maintenance, not in the attachment’s manufacture.
- Transport and toppling damage: usually a matter for insurance rather than warranty.
Three things that support a claim
The first is the service record. A record showing that greasing was done, that the right grease was used and that service was carried out on time answers the usage related claim directly. We covered it in its own guide.
The second is the failure in its original state. Photographing the attachment when the failure appears, before stripping it or attempting a repair, makes assessment easier. On a stripped and worked-on attachment, separating the cause becomes much harder.
The third is the working conditions: which machine, at what flow and pressure, in what material. That information is the most direct way to show the failure was not usage related.
Photograph the failure before stripping it
The most common mistake on site is opening the attachment to look when a failure appears, and reporting it afterwards. It is done in good faith but it makes assessment harder: the original position of the parts, the shape of the fracture surface and the grease traces are lost once it is opened. Photographing before reporting makes the job easier for you and for whoever assesses it.
Do and don’t
Do
- At purchase, ask for the exclusions in writing; they matter as much as the cover list.
- Keep the service record before any failure; a record started afterwards says nothing.
- Photograph and report the failure before stripping it.
- Record your machine’s flow and pressure figures; they are your evidence of working inside the range.
- Record the grease and oil types you use; they are among the first things asked.
Don't
- Do not treat a wear part reaching its end as a warranty matter.
- Do not attempt your own welding or repair after a failure.
- Do not assume cover from a verbal statement; the written document governs.
- Do not drill or weld anything onto the attachment without approval.
- Do not delay reporting a failure; carrying on enlarges the damage and blurs the cause.
On the HKM side
We do not print the duration, scope and exclusions of HKM attachment warranties on this page. The reason is accuracy rather than evasion: cover varies with the product, the terms of sale and the market, and a general sentence written here would not override the clause in your document, only create a false expectation.
For the cover on your own attachment, check your sales documents. If you do not have them, or you are unsure what a clause means, write to us with your model code and we will send the scope in writing.
Where a claim is in question, coming with the three supporting items above (record, photographs, working conditions) prepared shortens the process markedly.