Which item in a Field Armoury standard gets missed most often?

Answer: The lock check after vibration. Static load is always remembered; a bolt that slides out under inertia is found at the dock.

Is 480 h of salt spray always required?

Answer: For outdoor siting, yes. An indoor store can drop to 240 h if phosphate weight stays in the clause.

Can we sample ten percent instead?

Answer: Not safely. Three units out of thirty can hardly fail at AQL 2.5; the lot passes by default.

Should a prying test unit be kept?

Answer: Yes. Keep one per lot and archive the photographs with the report.

What happens when a lot fails?

Answer: Class A returns the lot or triggers a full sort at the supplier's cost; Class B may be accepted with a price adjustment.

Field Armoury Acceptance: Test Items and Pass Lines

Quick answer: A Field Armoury acceptance standard is a set of clauses you can re-run, not a certificate: six test groups, a stated sample size, fixed conditions and a numeric pass line. Put those columns in the contract annex and two inspectors reach the same verdict.

What a Field Armoury Standard Must Cover
Sampling and Judgement for Finish and Size
Coating Adhesion and Salt Spray
Door Cycling and Lock Resistance
Load Vibration and the Document Pack
FAQ

1. What a Field Armoury Standard Must Cover

An acceptance standard is not a certificate; it turns good enough into measurements. A Field Armoury is checked in six groups, from appearance and dimensions to lock grade and stacking, each with a condition, sample size and pass value.

Write clauses four columns wide: item, method, pass value, sampling. One Class A defect, a bolt that does not seat or a cracked weld, rejects the batch; Class B goes by AQL.

Item	Condition	Pass value
Appearance	D65 light, 500 mm viewing	within master panel
Adhesion	1 mm cross-cut, 6 by 6	removal 5% or less
Salt spray	5% NaCl, 35 °C, 480 h	creep 2 mm or less
Door cycling	90 degrees, 10 000 cycles	sag 2 mm or less
Full load	1.5 times rated, 1 h	door works, L/200

2. Sampling and Judgement for Finish and Size

Sampling follows GB/T 2828.1. Appearance uses level II at AQL 2.5, dimensions special level S-2 at AQL 1.0. A lot of 30 takes five samples, 120 twenty, 500 eighty.

Field Armoury: a tan case flat on a ribbed mat inside a vehicle, a beige strap around it, brown boots and a folded olive jacket

Dimensions need one datum: width, depth and height within 2 mm, diagonals within 3 mm at 1000 mm, door gaps 1.0 to 1.5 mm, colour within ΔE 1.5.

Lot	Sample	AQL 2.5 accept	AQL 1.0 accept
30	5	0	0
120	20	1	0
500	80	3	1

3. Coating Adhesion and Salt Spray

Adhesion is a cross-cut test: 1 mm spacing, six by six squares, 3M 610 tape pressed for 60 s and pulled at 60 degrees within half a second. Removal up to 5 percent is ISO 2409 grade 1; flaking up to 15 percent is grade 2, hidden faces only.

Salt spray is neutral: 5 percent sodium chloride, 35 °C, pH 6.5 to 7.2, without a break. For outdoor siting run 480 h, with scribe creep within 2 mm each side; 240 h catches failed pre-treatment but not thin film.

Pre-treatment sits in the same clause: phosphate 2 to 4 g/m², powder 60 to 80 μm, at least 50 μm at corners.

4. Door Cycling and Lock Resistance

Cycling runs at 90 degrees, eight cycles per minute, with 20 kg on the leaf, for 10 000 cycles. It passes on four checks: no hinge cracks, sag within 2 mm, gasket compression at 70 percent, and a bolt that closes one-handed at cycle 10 000.

Field Armoury: two near-black cases on a dark backdrop, moulded lid ribs and a black latch on the front one, the rear handle raised

The shackle eye is 11 mm clear for a 50 mm padlock. Three-point locking uses top and bottom rods plus a centre bolt, rods 16 mm, throw 22 mm, fixings unreachable from outside. A 600 mm bar at the mid gap for 60 s must leave a gap under 8 mm and a lock that still re-latches.

5. Load Vibration and the Document Pack

Full load is uniform at 1.5 times rating for 1 h. Stacking is four tiers with 1 200 kg on top for 72 h, with no permanent set over 2 mm.

Vibration sweeps 3 to 100 Hz at 1.5 g for 30 min per axis with the rated load inside. No lock may open and no corner weld may crack. The fixture must copy the real lashing.

The document pack holds seven items: steel certificate with heat number, adhesion and salt spray reports, lock certificate, first-article and sampling records, packing list. The stamped serial ties to heat number and paint batch, kept five years.

Test	Condition	Pass criterion
Full load	1.5 times rated, uniform	door works, L/200
Stacking	four tiers, 1 200 kg	set 2 mm or less
Vibration	3–100 Hz, 1.5 g	no self-opening

Conclusion

Once the six groups become clauses, acceptance turns into numbers that can be re-checked: sample size, condition, pass value and retained unit. Attach this table to the contract and a Field Armoury has a boundary that can be enforced.

This article discusses only the container (case body) side of specifications and design intent, and does not cover any handling, loading or use of the contents.