Hi Team, I hope everyone is keeping well at the moment.
I have started a small company manufacturing hitch mounted bicycle racks and have had our first production run manufactured in China recently. We looked at sourcing locally but the numbers simply didn't work.
As part of our agreement we stipulated that material certificates would be required for all materials used in production. Half of these were provided when asked and the other half took the last month of chasing to get them. We have 12 and 8mm 6061-T6 plate and both certificates provided are literally identical with all the little marks on the page being in the exact same location, the stamp location is identical, etc. It is obvious one of these has been forged and I am kind of assuming both of them probably have been.
Same story with both of the stainless steel certificates, certain details like thickness, etc have been changed but everything else is literally identical, including the certificate number! We have stressed the importance of the materials being the correct grade as these components will be mounted to motor vehicles so any failure may result in serious injury or death. What do you suggest we do? I'm thinking we will have to send some samples off to get tested? I would like to do this in China before we pay for and have the items shipped + pay import and duty etc but am worried about how to go about doing this and making sure we actually get a representative sample from the factory. Perhaps the sampling company would come and physically select the sample at random from the packaged goods? Any recommendations or idea would be very much appreciated.
I have started a small company manufacturing hitch mounted bicycle racks and have had our first production run manufactured in China recently. We looked at sourcing locally but the numbers simply didn't work.
As part of our agreement we stipulated that material certificates would be required for all materials used in production. Half of these were provided when asked and the other half took the last month of chasing to get them. We have 12 and 8mm 6061-T6 plate and both certificates provided are literally identical with all the little marks on the page being in the exact same location, the stamp location is identical, etc. It is obvious one of these has been forged and I am kind of assuming both of them probably have been.
Same story with both of the stainless steel certificates, certain details like thickness, etc have been changed but everything else is literally identical, including the certificate number! We have stressed the importance of the materials being the correct grade as these components will be mounted to motor vehicles so any failure may result in serious injury or death. What do you suggest we do? I'm thinking we will have to send some samples off to get tested? I would like to do this in China before we pay for and have the items shipped + pay import and duty etc but am worried about how to go about doing this and making sure we actually get a representative sample from the factory. Perhaps the sampling company would come and physically select the sample at random from the packaged goods? Any recommendations or idea would be very much appreciated.
