What must a tool bag acceptance standard cover?

Answer: Five groups and 16 items: appearance, dimension, mechanics, environment and marking, each with a limit.

How are appearance defects graded?

Answer: ΔE past 1.0, scratches over 15 mm, sink marks over 0.4 mm or flash over 0.25 mm are minor; three on one face become major.

What drop height should be specified?

Answer: 1.0 m onto concrete, 10 drops across 6 faces, 3 edges and 1 corner, 30 kg of ballast, plus a latch cycle.

How is the sample size set?

Answer: From the batch: 50 units for 281 to 500, 80 for 501 to 1200, 125 for 1201 to 3200, at AQL 2.5.

Can a critical defect be accepted by concession?

Answer: No. Critical defects touch opening, load and sealing; their acceptance number is zero.

Tool Bag Acceptance Standards: Inspection Items and Verdicts

Quick answer: A tool bag acceptance standard stands on three documents: an inspection list sorted by category, a test method and limit for each item, and a sampling plan that fixes batch and sample size.

The Inspection List in a Tool Bag Acceptance Standard
Appearance and Dimension Limits
Mechanical Tests and Pass Lines
Environmental and Water Jet Tests
Sampling Rules and Nonconformance
FAQ

1. The Inspection List in a Tool Bag Acceptance Standard

A standard is not a verdict but a list an inspector can follow. A tool bag carries 16 items across five groups, each counted or measured, and the type decides how the result is recorded.

Group	Items	Type	Record
Appearance	Colour, scratch, sink mark, flash	Counted	Defect count
Dimension	Cavity, joint gap, diagonal	Measured	Reading
Mechanics	Drop, handle load, fatigue, latch, hinge	Measured	Peak, cycles
Environment	Thermal cycling, water jet	Counted	Pass or fail
Marking	Label adhesion, barcode grade	Measured	Force, grade

Mixing the types causes most disputes: a counted item written as measured leaves the inspector guessing.

2. Appearance and Dimension Limits

Appearance needs numbers, not the phrase no obvious defect. Judge colour at grey card grade 4 with ΔE within 1.0, cap scratches at 15 mm and two per face, sink marks at 0.4 mm and flash at 0.25 mm. Any one is minor; three on one face become major.

Tool Bag: five hard cases in different colours on a grey woven mat, an orange one with a black label, wood floor behind

Cavity size, joint gap and diagonal are key items, measured on every unit. A 0.8 mm feeler that enters no deeper than 10 mm passes the joint, and a diagonal spread past 2.0 mm lifts the lid enough for water to enter.

Measured items also report process capability: an index under 1.33 across five batches means drift even when every unit passes, and under 1.0 the line stops.

3. Mechanical Tests and Pass Lines

Mechanical items are often written as drop it and see. Fix height, attitude, count and ballast, and add a latch cycle after each drop.

Test	Equipment	Condition	Pass line
Drop	Drop rig	1.0 m, 10 drops, 30 kg	No crack, latch works
Handle load	Tensile machine	2× rated, 60 kg, 10 min	Set under 2 mm
Handle fatigue	Fatigue rig	30 kg, 5 000 cycles	No break, grip tight
Latch cycles	Cycle rig	2 000 cycles	Force 50 N or more
Hinge	Cycle rig	10 000 cycles	No crack, lid square

The verdict covers function after the drop, not just damage. A case whose latch will not open is scrap on site, so the pass line includes one open-and-close cycle. Test units come at random, never the best-looking ones.

4. Environmental and Water Jet Tests

Sealing is checked with a jet, not immersion. A 6.3 mm nozzle at 12.5 L/min, held 3 m away for 3 min per face, with absorbent paper inside, passes when the paper stays dry.

Tool Bag: beige hard cases in rows on a wooden pallet, black separators between layers, green factory floor behind

Thermal cycling runs 4 h at 65 °C and 4 h at -25 °C, three cycles, then 2 h at room temperature before reading dimensions; key sizes stay within 0.3 percent. Work the latch five times straight out of the cold chamber, where brittle plastic cracks.

Metal parts take 48 h of neutral salt spray, rated 9 or better to GB/T 6461, and the latch must still cycle. Grading without a function check passes a batch of seized latches.

5. Sampling Rules and Nonconformance

Sampling follows GB/T 2828.1 at general level II, with AQL 2.5 for major defects, 4.0 for minor and zero for critical.

Batch	Sample	Accept	Reject
281 to 500	50	3	4
501 to 1200	80	5	6
1201 to 3200	125	7	8

Destructive tests sit outside the plan: 2 units per batch, and the first article runs the full list. One critical defect sends the batch back for 100 percent inspection, and a sorted resubmission is refused. Five clean batches restore normal inspection; two failures tighten it.

Records close the loop. Keep 3 samples, photographs and raw readings for 12 months, so a complaint meets the limit applied at the time. A tool bag sheet without readings proves nothing.

Conclusion

Three sheets carry the whole standard: the item list, the test-and-limit table and the sampling plan. The list says what to check, the limits how far a defect may go, the plan how many units answer for the batch. A tool bag measured against stored readings stays comparable batch after batch.

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.