Standard Operating Inspection Protocol for Four Point Greige Scoring
ASTM D5430 four-point scoring normalises greige defects per 100 square yards, capping penalties at four points per yard to decide lot acceptance.
Lot Acceptance
Batch Verification
Flax spinning mills evaluate incoming harvest consignments through lot acceptance protocols before raw material reaches the carding floor. Statistical sampling tables govern how many bales investigators open from a given harvest delivery. Laboratory technicians pull core samples from each opened bale to measure moisture content and pectin ratios.
Moisture levels exceeding twelve percent trigger immediate quarantine because damp flax rots inside the soaking vats. Pectin percentages dictate how long the roving sits inside boiling caustic baths during alkaline scouring. Spinning performance depends entirely upon these baseline measurements because inconsistent fibre stiffness jams high speed drafting rollers.
Acceptance Threshold
Buyer specifications demand higher breaking tenacity than the mill’s internal quality standard permits for unbranded stock. Export contracts stipulate exact limits for shive residue counts remaining after mechanical decortication. Inspectors count remaining woody fragments across twenty randomized square centimetre test patches per ton of yarn.
Shipments failing the shive test face financial penalties or return shipment at the supplier expense. Weaving looms jam whenever broken woody hull fragments slip past the combing cylinders and enter the warp sizing troughs.
Quality Record
Inspection sheets travel alongside every pallet from the grading table to the final container stuffing bay. Technical supervisors sign the clearance document only after tensile strength meters confirm uniform yarn elasticity across all bobbins. Warehouse clerks archive these paper records for three years to maintain complete traceability for audit verification.
Customs inspectors occasionally request the clearance dossier when verifying export grade declarations at the port warehouse. Finished linen bolts leave the finishing shed only after passing final surface uniformity tests recorded on the same dossier.