Receiving complaints from customers about their new coats or pants? Have you ever wondered if the complaints are related to the quality of the fabric, which is the most significant component of your garment?
Fabric flaws account for approximately 20% of all garment problems, emphasizing the need of checking fabric quality before production. A fabric inspection may do just that, ensuring the quality of critical components from the start.
Before garment production, fabric inspection helps understand quality in terms of color, density, weight, printing, measurement, and other quality parameters. We'll go over some fundamentals of fabric inspection so you can get practical advice, whether you're a merchandiser or a garment supplier.
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What is the significance of fabric inspection?
As previously said, fabric inspection helps prevent errors in the final product, but there are several additional reasons why it is an essential component of every business.
Whether it be a decrease in productivity or an increase in overhead, the faulty fabric can cause manufacturing issues for garment brands/suppliers.
Fabric consumption/wastage will be affected by inconsistencies in the cuttable width.
Colour shading between rolls or within the same roll affects the quality of the products and demands special management during cutting/sewing/packing and other production steps.
High fabric defect rates (such as stains/holes, for example) will reduce consumption per garment and increase the probability of problems being discovered in the garment.
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What is the fabric inspection system?
For fabric inspection, numerous grading methods are used, including the 10-point system and the Dallas system. The 4-point approach has become the most widely used system for fabric assessment.
The 4-point system is based on penalty points, and as the name suggests, points are deducted from 1 to 4, with 4 being the greatest deduction for serious flaws.
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What is the 4-point system's sampling size?
In contrast to product inspection, which uses the AQL System (see more about AQL here), the sampling size is 10% of the total lots in metres per order per colour.
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What is the 4-point inspection penalty system?
As previously stated, flaws are assessed and points subtracted accordingly. Fabric defects are mostly measured by length. The table below shows how to calculate flaw deduction on a 4-point fabric inspection:
Length of the flaw
One penalty point
7 cm / 3 inches / or less
1 to 15 cm / 3 to 6 in.
2 (16–22 cm / 6–9 inches)
3 cm or more than 9 inches
4 Openings & Holes
1 inch or less / 2.5 cm or less
2 Openings & Holes
More than 2.5 cm / 1 inch
4
Defects that are not apparent on the face of the fabric are not counted while assessing, and a maximum of four points are deducted for any single defect on the same fabric.
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What are the 4-point system's pass and fail criteria?
An equation is used to calculate the outcome:
Points per 100 square metres = (total points per roll multiplied by ten thousand) / length examined (metre) x cuttable width (cm)
At Eurofins, the passing score is 24 points per 100 square metres, which is a moderate level of stringency. If your cloth is more valuable, consider lowering the passing score to less than 20.
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What is evaluated during fabric inspection?
Inspectors utilize a variety of factors to assess the quality of the fabric.
Identification stickers, shipping marks, packing lists, and packing quantity are all compared to the criteria and specifications.
Weight
The weight of the cloth is an important indicator of these materials' compliance. Fabric weight, which is generally measured in GSM (grammes per square metre), is a reliable indicator of fabric density, composition, and construction.
A sample of woven fabric is cut out with a circular cutter and weighed by one roll of each lot to determine its weight. In the case of knit fabric, a minimum of 10% of rolls from each lot must be weighed.
Conformity inspectors use fabric samples provided by clients as comparison samples, or in the absence of fabric samples from clients, the beginning and end of the roll are cut for conformity testing against the inspected roll.
Conformity is measured using
Colors
Angle gap and printing
Elasticity
Hand sensations, for example.
Quality
Needless to mention, quality is required for inspection. Fabric faults that are commonly encountered include holes, stains, fabric bar, poor finishing, coarse yarn, and running knit.
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How will the defective fabric be handled?
Depending on the severity of the faults, the fabric may need to be rejected and replaced. Because of different color shades among rolls, for example, it is necessary to segregate them by color during cutting.
In some circumstances, fabric flaws can be prevented during the cut and sew phase since defects are highlighted with defect stickers.
Looking to protect the quality of your textile goods from the start? Use our fabric inspection to get your production started right!