Inspection by BV
We had the inspectors (BV) today at Zhongyuan Heavy Forging. Third party auditors make it a bit awkward. This run of heavy shafts is bound for Europe, so there's no chance of getting anything wrong!
The first photo on this page is Mr. Zhang's portrait, the red hard hat guy. He is flashing the flashlight and checking that the surface of the big forging bars are alright. The overhead lighting is not sufficient for the job; one needs a flashlight to get the right lighting angle and find the scratches, or laps, or scales, etc. He is doing one at a time. The big rings in the background and the half-finished parts scattered on the floor belong to the same consignment.
The engineer from BV was a thorough guy. All he had were his calipers and ultrasonic measuring device which he put against the drawings. Tolerance is extremely tight for these kind of contracts particularly for the straightness of the inner bores. If they are slightly out of it, the whole system will be thrown away. We encountered a minor incident. The edge of one of the flange plates came in a tiny dent at the time of the final lift. It was strong and did not affect the strength, but anyway BV pointed it out. Zhang did not make a fuss. He took the grinder, removed the dent, and repainted the defect to the satisfaction of the inspector.
Internally we already had all the dimensions, but BV is more for client reassurance than for us to be sure of a perfect job. I was even on a video-conference, as the customer wanted a live view. Seeing our logo as well as the BV inspector at work was quite enough demonstration for them. After they received the signature and a copy of the report, the customer had no doubts left, and Zhang was able to clean his perspiration.
We are dealing with forges with such weight that the weight is several tons per piece. There is no room for mistakes. If you are wrong after the product has left the port, only the costs of re-shipment may break you. Thus, BV inspections might slow us down, but it's better to deal with any issue here on the ground than to suffer a loss on the other side of the world. That's why the seal on the container along with a clean report is a big confirmation for us - the work is finished!
