Fabric Inspection: How It’s Done

When checking the quality of apparel and textiles it’s usually necessary to perform a fabric inspection as fabric quality is a major driver of defects in products like these.

By inspecting fabric quality received from the mill at the sewing factory before production starts and it goes to cut and sew, you minimize the risks of ending up with products that don’t reach your expectations, in this case, apparel and textiles suffering from incorrect color, design (print), or weight. This is a key goal of most product inspections, of course.

What your fabric inspection may find

Issues that may commonly be found are:

• Discrepancies in color or texture between the different batches or rolls of fabrics
• Rolls with varying widths that would lead to wastage once cut
• Fabric that has been provided with defects (see more on this later), again leading to wastage or defective products
• Incorrect weight of fabric provided in the case of a fabric where different weights are available
• Fabric with a defective design or print or even a totally wrong one (!)
• Incorrect yarn count, composition, density of fabric provided (this can only be measured in a testing lab, and in many factories an inspector does not have the capability to do so)
• Packing and labeling problems

Some of these are more obvious than others, but even in the case of your supplier being provided with an incorrectly colored fabric, can you be sure they wouldn’t use it by accident if it arrived at their shop?

 

What sample size is used?

Before doing the inspection the sample must be decided. Fabric coming in from the mill may be in large quantities of rolls and, as with many incoming product, material, or component inspections, it’s often unrealistic to inspect 100%. That’s why a representative sample is taken at random.

The AQL sample size is usually 5% to 10% of the order quantity, especially for orders above 1000 m or yd, although for smaller order quantities the entire batch may be checked.

 

What are defects according to the standard?

Defects are imperfections in the fabric. ASTM provides a thorough list of fabric defects to purchase here, and this will help none go unnoticed. You can see an extract of them from the standard:

If you work with an experienced fabric inspector or inspection company, they will be aware of the defects and can provide guidance on what to look out for in your particular fabric as well as how high you should set your quality standard.

 

What’s the inspection process?

At Sofeast we usually follow ASTM D5430-13(2017) (“American 4 point system”)*. This is a points-based inspection where points are deducted for defects as penalties, with the most serious defects being up to 4 points.

Fabric quality can be inspected by eye or by machine (more common), where the roll of fabric that has been sampled is passed over the glass inspection table and the light emitted below shows up defects that are marked by the inspector.

Defects are measured by length and whether they’re a hole/opening. You can see how points are assigned from the standard itself:

Additionally, holes under 1 inch are assigned 2 points, and over 1 inch are assigned 4 points. Each linear meter of fabric may only be assigned up to 4 points at most.

We also follow these rules:

• Individual roll penalty: maximum point per 100 square meter is 24
• Shipment: maximum point per 100 square meter is 22
• Limit of acceptance by default: no more than 2% of rejected roll per inspected lot

Once the fabric in the sample has been checked, the total number of defect points is used to pass or fail the batch.

The inspector will also pay attention to:

• Conformity: Does the roll match the required color/s, texture and feel, printing position, and elasticity? A pre-approved fabric sample may be used to check the incoming material’s conformity.
• Weight: GSM weight of the fabric to be measured, where its composition, density, and construction are shown by the weight.
• Packing and labeling: Product ID, shipping marks, packing lists and quantity are checked against your requirements.

*Note, there are other fabric inspection systems to choose from, notably the 10 point, Graniteville ’78,’ and Dallas systems. They are much less commonly used.

 

How does fabric pass or fail?

Firstly, the customer needs to determine how many defects are acceptable per one hundred square yards or meters of fabric. The number will vary depending on fabric cost and the final value of apparel or textiles to be made. Cheaper clothing, for example, may result in a higher tolerance for defects in the raw fabrics being used.

An example…

Let’s say your pass/fail limit is ≤40 defects points for the batch.

You can calculate the result using this equation based on the standard:

Points per 100 square meters =
(Total points per roll x 10000) / Length inspected (meter) x cuttable width (cm)

26 x 10,000 = 260,000  / 100 x 91 = 28.57 points per 100 sqm

So, in this case, the fabric batch would pass the inspection.

 

How much fabric can be checked in a man-day?

In 1 man-day, we can check 1,500 to 2,000 meters of fabric if the factory has the proper fabric inspection machine.

If you need assistance inspecting fabric, get in touch with us and let us know more about the project.