The room that defends your margin has no windows and one tube light angled across a tilted table. Every serious supplier in Surat has one, and what happens at that table decides whether your cutting floor runs smoothly or phones you in week two with a problem. Here is what happens at ours, in the order it happens.
Paper First: The Checks Before the Fabric
Quality control starts before any fabric is unrolled. The inspector works from the purchase order and the approved standards: article number, GSM, finished usable width, the colour master or signed lab-dip reference with its lot number, and the finish specification. The dye-lot register is reconciled roll by roll against what the processing house delivered. A roll without a lot ticket is a failure before inspection begins, because a roll that cannot be traced cannot be claimed, reordered or cut with confidence.
This is also where greige source is noted. Two bolts of the same article woven on different loom runs can behave differently in dyeing and differently again on your cutting table, and the paperwork is what makes that visible before the knife moves.
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A Practical Fabric Inspection Checklist — What Our QC Floor Checks Before Dispatch
What actually happens on a textile QC floor before fabric or garments dispatch, from the four-point system and GSM cut-and-weigh to crocking tests and AQL sampling. The reports and checks a buyer can ask for by name, and what each one catches.
Ajmera Export 2 Feb 20267 min read
The Four-Point System, Run Properly
Fabric defects are graded on the four-point system, and it works like this: defect size assigns points, one point for a small fault, two as it grows, three beyond that, and four for anything large or for holes regardless of size. Only the largest single fault per linear metre counts, so a messy strip does not inflate into a false failure. The inspector totals points per hundred square metres and compares that against the allowance agreed in the purchase order. Buyers we ship to commonly work somewhere in the twenties to low forties per hundred square metres depending on end use; bridal bases and the Gulf's white thobe fabrics sit at the tight end because a slub shows against white like a signature.
The defect families the table is hunting: weaving faults such as slubs, missing picks and gout; processing faults such as stains, dye spots and stenter crease marks; print faults such as misprints, repeat misalignment and edge marks; and handling faults like selvedge tears and roll crush. Two habits separate a real inspection from theatre: fabric runs through at a speed the eye can genuinely track, under raking light at an angle, because raking light catches what overhead light hides. Made-to-order fabric gets full surface inspection; repeat programmes with history may run sampling, and the buyer should know which they are getting.
The Numbers That Catch What Eyes Miss
GSM. A die-cut disc of one hundred square centimetres, weighed on a precision balance, sampled at three positions across the width because finishes deposit unevenly. Commercial tolerance sits around plus or minus five percent, and Gulf white programmes often tighten it.
Usable width. Measured after selvedge exclusion, never from the greige number, because fabric loses width through processing. Specify usable width in the purchase order and check exactly that.
Shrinkage. A marked and stitched square, washed by the agreed method. Sanforised cotton should hold near two percent; viscose blends and non-sanforised bases run higher, and this single number decides whether made-to-measure Gulf programmes still fit after the customer's first wash.
Bow and skew. Measured across the width, because above roughly two percent a striped print cuts diagonal on the garment and there is no fixing it at the tailoring stage.
Colourfastness. Crocking tests, dry and wet, rubbed against standard cotton and graded on the grey scale; commercial target is grey scale four and above. Washing fastness matters on reactive-dyed cotton destined for frequent laundering.
Shade against master. Read in a light box under D65 and store light, not under warehouse daylight through a skylight, and expressed as a Delta E number where a spectrophotometer is in play. Below roughly one reads as a commercial match to most buyers.
Garments, Not Just Fabric
On finished-goods orders the inspection moves to the garment table. Measurement against the spec on points of measure with tolerances; stitch density and skipped-stitch scanning along stress seams; zip and closure function checks; loose threads trimmed. Label correctness gets checked with the same seriousness as stitching, because a wrong size or fibre content label re-runs a whole consignment at the destination instead of the origin.
Packing is part of quality, not an afterthought. Assortment per carton against the size and colour ratio on the packing list, garments poly-bagged with desiccant for four to six weeks at sea, carton strength checked against stack height, and carton marks matching the documents. Then final random inspection on garment lots, usually to AQL 2.5 at general inspection level II, which is the acceptance sampling norm across the industry: a defined sample pulled from the lot, defects classified critical, major and minor, and a clear accept or reject rule applied before the container doors close.
What a Buyer Should Ask For, and Get
Mid-production, ask for inline photos or short video from the floor, not as surveillance but as schedule confirmation. At final inspection, ask for the report: roll-wise defect tallies, GSM averages, shrinkage results, and photographs of anything the inspector graded marginal. Where a third-party inspection agency is appointed, a serious supplier builds the inspection window into the dispatch schedule instead of resenting it; agencies work in Surat routinely and the good ones book out three or four days before planned dispatch. On developed programmes, ask that a sealed golden sample from bulk be retained on each side.
One admission from our side of the table: no QC floor catches everything, ours included. The goal is not a defect-free fantasy, it is catching systematic problems before they become cutting-floor problems. A single loose thread is not systematic. A dye lot that drifts across ten bolts, or a shrinkage result that quietly doubles, is.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the four-point system in fabric inspection?
The standard method for grading fabric defects by size: one to four points per fault depending on extent, holes scored four regardless of size, only the largest fault per linear metre counted. Points per hundred square metres are compared against the allowance in your purchase order.
How is GSM verified on a delivery?
By cutting and weighing. A disc of known area is cut at several positions across the width and weighed on a precision balance, then converted to grams per square metre. Ask for the three readings, not just an average, because uneven finish shows in the spread.
What does AQL 2.5 mean for garment orders?
It is the acceptance sampling standard most export buyers apply at final inspection. A statistical sample is drawn from the lot, defects are classified by severity, and the lot passes or fails against fixed accept and reject numbers. AQL 2.5 at general level II is the commercial default; first orders with new suppliers sometimes specify tighter.
Can I appoint my own inspector in Surat?
Yes, and it is routine. Agencies and independent inspectors work across the cluster; the practical requirement is booking the inspection window into the production schedule three or four days before planned dispatch, so goods are packed and still accessible.
Which tests matter most for GCC programmes?
Shrinkage and fastness on white thobe bases, shade reading under store light as well as daylight, and tight GSM tolerance, because whites expose every slub and every shade drift that a print would disguise.
What happens if the fabric fails inspection?
The failing lot is segregated and either reprocessed, replaced from a fresh lot, or, on marginal results, shipped with the buyer's written acceptance after seeing the report. What should never happen is a failure discovered only on your cutting floor.
Our inspection reports travel with every consignment we ship, and buyers are welcome to walk the process before committing. If you want a quality standard applied to your order by name, four-point, AQL, Delta E, tell our desk, and serious buyers can arrange samples to judge the standard for themselves.
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