The Four-Point Inspection System: How Fabric Rolls Are Scored

Why fabric needs a scoring system

No woven cloth is perfect. Looms run fast, yarn has natural thick and thin places, and dyeing and finishing add their own small marks. So a few faults in a long roll are normal. The real question is whether a roll has too many faults, or faults that are too big, for the order.

A scoring system turns that judgement into a number that both sides can check. Instead of one person saying the cloth looks fine and another saying it does not, the inspector counts and measures each fault the same way every time. The four-point system is the most widely used method for woven fabric, and it is described in the ASTM D5430 standard for visual inspection of fabric.

This lesson explains how the scoring works. For the wider receiving checklist, from paperwork to width and shade, see how to inspect uniform fabric on delivery.

What counts as a defect

A defect is any fault an inspector can see from the normal viewing distance on the inspection frame, usually about a metre away, that would show in the finished garment. Inspectors do not hunt with a magnifier. If it cannot be seen at that distance under good light, it is not scored.

Typical scored faults include broken or missing threads, thick places and slubs in the yarn, stop marks where the loom restarted, oil stains, holes, uneven dyeing and spots. Where each of these starts, at the yarn, the loom or the process house, is covered in woven fabric defects and where each one comes from.

Some problems are not scored by points at all because they affect the whole roll rather than one spot: wrong width, wrong weight, a shade that does not match the approved standard, or bowed and skewed weft on checks. Those are measured separately and can fail a roll on their own, whatever its point score.

How points are given

Each fault is measured in its longest direction, whether it runs along the length of the cloth (the warp) or across it (the weft), and given points by size.

Holes are scored more strictly than other faults of the same size because a garment cannot hide them. Many buyers also treat any hole, however small, as a serious fault.

The four-point cap per yard

The system gets its name from one rule: no single linear yard (one yard of the roll's length, across its full width) can score more than 4 points. If a yard holds a 4-point fault and a 1-point fault, it still scores 4.

The cap stops one badly damaged stretch from spoiling the whole result. A long fault that runs down the cloth for several yards is scored yard by yard, up to 4 points in each yard it touches. Buyers who want to limit those stretches often add a separate rule, such as a maximum number of 4-point yards per roll.

From points to a score per 100 square yards

A roll's raw point total is not enough on its own, because a long wide roll will naturally collect more points than a short narrow one. So the total is converted to points per 100 square yards of cloth, which puts every roll on the same footing.

The usual formula is: points per 100 square yards = total points x 3,600 / (yards inspected x cuttable width in inches). The 3,600 comes from 100 square yards being 3,600 inches across times one yard long (100 x 36). Cuttable width means the usable width inside the selvedges, the firm woven edges.

A worked example: a roll of 100 yards at 58 inches cuttable width scores 50 points in total. That is 50 x 3,600 / (100 x 58) = 31.0 points per 100 square yards. If the agreed limit is 40, the roll passes. The same 50 points on a roll only 60 yards long would score 51.7 and fail. Converting metres and yards correctly matters here, because the formula is written in yards and inches.

How a roll passes or fails

A roll passes when its score per 100 square yards is at or below the agreed limit. A common limit for woven apparel cloth is 40 points per 100 square yards for each roll, sometimes with a lower average across the whole lot, but there is no single fixed number. Fine suiting may be held tighter than workwear, and the figure should be written into the order before production, not argued about on delivery.

• Score each roll on its own. One poor roll does not fail a whole lot, and one clean roll does not rescue a poor one.
• Check the non-point items too: width, weight, shade and squareness can fail a roll that scored well.
• Agree how many rolls will be inspected, often a share of the lot, and what happens if the sample fails.
• Agree in advance how failed rolls are handled, such as replacement, re-processing or an allowance; fabric delivery claims and remedies explains the usual routes.

Where the four-point system fits in quality checks

Point scoring covers what the eye can see on the surface. It does not tell you how the cloth will shrink, fade or pill. Those are lab tests, covered in how we test our fabric, and both kinds of check belong in a sensible specification.

At Benny Cotts we weave in-house at Village Atoon in Bhilwara, and dyeing, finishing and testing happen at partnered Bhilwara process houses. Knowing which stage a fault came from is what makes a point score useful: it tells both sides not just how many faults there are, but who can stop them happening again.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Why is it called the four-point system?

Because the largest fault scores 4 points, and no single linear yard of fabric can score more than 4 points in total, however many faults it holds.

Is 40 points per 100 square yards a fixed standard?

No. It is a widely used acceptance limit, but the pass mark is agreed between buyer and supplier and should be written into the order. Some buyers set it tighter for fine cloth.

Can a roll with a low point score still be rejected?

Yes. Width, weight, shade against the approved standard and bowed or skewed weft are checked separately, and any one of them can fail a roll that scored well on points.

Why does the formula use cuttable width?

Because the selvedges are not used in the garment. Scoring only the usable width gives a fair figure for the cloth a cutting room will actually get. To see our fabrics, Request Catalog at /quote.