Development of a quality control system for the supply of silica refractory material from China

Abstract

This document describes how to perform a quality control management of refractory silica material purchased in China. Silica refractories are key actors in the lifetime of the equipment and they are fundamental to ensure the adequate operation of the plant. The objective is to plan the sampling, minimising the number of tests to obtain an assessment of the quality of the consignment with the greatest precision. The types of destructive and non-destructive tests, the number of pieces to be inspected per batch and the acceptance criteria will be defined in this article. The quality control will be carried out at three levels, one to be performed by the manufacturer and the others by the buyer and the final client. The approval of the lots by the three parties ensures that the quality of the product is in accordance with the specifications. It will be achieved by dividing the order into different batches to treat them as independent units for acceptance or rejection. To avoid the loss of “see freight time” in case of rejection of any consignment, the customer’s quality control must be performed before shipping the batches.