If you want to
produce high quality garments, you need high
quality piece goods. When a sewing factory
receives fabric from the mill, it is difficult
to conduct a full 100% inspection of the
fabric. Apparel
Search recommends a minimum 10%
inspection of all piece goods prior to spreading
the fabric. Many factories attempt to inspect
the fabric during the spreading, but this is
probably unrealistic to depend on the spreader
to control the fabric quality evaluation. The
fabric should be inspected prior to the fabric
reaching the cutting tables.
There are
several piece good inspection systems for
measuring the quality of fabrics. Their is a
Ten-Point System, which was
developed in the 1950's. That system assigns
penalty points to each defect, depending on the
length of the defect. The system is a bit
complicated because the points per length vary
for warp and filling defects. There is also a
Dallas System published in the
1970's. That system was developed specifically
for knits. According to this system, if any
defect was found on a finished garment the
garment would then be termed a second. In
regard to fabric, this system defines a second
as "more then one defect per ten linear yards,
calculated to the nearest ten yards." For
example, one piece 60 yards long would be
allowed to have six defects. Another system for
evaluating piece goods is the Four-Point
System. In this system, you should
inspect at least 10 percent of the total rolls
in the shipment. Make sure to select at least
one roll or each color way. The defect
classification works as follows.
Size of Defect:
3 inches or
less = 1 point penalty
Over 3 inches
but not over 6 inches = 2 point penalty
Over 6 inches
but not over 9 inches = 3 point penalty
Over 9 inches =
4 point penalty
Note: a maximum
of 4 points should be charged to one linear
yard. Also, note that only "major" defects are
charged.
The acceptable
score varies. Many companies use 40 points per
100 yards as acceptable defect rate. However,
others may find this not acceptable...
Here is some
math to show you an example.
Total Yardage
received: 5400
Acceptance
Point-count: 40 per 100 yards
Total Yards
Inspected: 540
Total penalty
points found in the sample inspection: 150
points
150 divided by
540 times 100 = 27.77 points per 100 yards
(because the allowance is 40 points per 100
yards, this shipment would be acceptable).
Above are only
a few examples of fabric testing procedures. In
fact, above is only a short summary of the
processes. If you are responsible for
inspecting fabric, you really will need to do
more research on this subject
