Fastener Receiving Inspection Checklist: 39 Acceptance Items

Galvanized M16 bolts arrive at a water treatment site with a mill certificate in the box, a coating that looks right, and a delivery note that is one line long. Receiving takes twenty minutes: count the cartons, check the size, sign. Nine weeks later a batch is rejected, because the heat number on the certificate cannot be matched to any heat the mill actually rolled, and nobody ever measured coating weight. That is the usual shape of a receiving failure — not a broken bolt, but a check that was never performed.

By the end of this page you will be able to run a 39-item receiving inspection on a fastener shipment, cite the tender clause behind every check, and know which documents must be written into the purchase order before the steel is rolled.

The short version: five document classes have to arrive with the goods and three of them cannot be created after the fact; inspection is a document comparison first and a physical test second; and most rejections trace back to a missing work test certificate, a galvanizing check that was never run to ASTM A90, and a torque record nobody signed.

The clauses below come from three public, World Bank-funded tender specifications in Pakistan: KWSSIP (Karachi water and sewerage, G-1 package), KWSSIP-2 K-IV (MS pipeline laying, lots 1-4) and MEPCO EDEIP Section VII (132 kV distribution). Together they define 39 acceptance items in seven categories. Where they are silent, this page says so — a checklist that mixes tender requirements with personal habits is worse than no checklist. Analysed from the specification side instead, the same KWSSIP package is the ASTM threshold list a water-sector tender actually imposes.

The five-document receiving pack

The gate check starts with paper. A structural fastener shipment should arrive with five document classes; only the first three are normally written into a tender.

#	Document class	What it proves	Status in these three specifications
1	Manufacturer’s Work Test Certificate, EN 10204 3.1 level	Material was tested, with values, by the maker’s own test department	Required for all materials (KWSSIP p134)
2	Mill and laboratory certificates	The heat was produced and tested	Conditionally accepted — the Project Manager may accept them (KWSSIP p169)
3	Retest report from a nominated laboratory	Locally rolled material was verified independently	Required for locally rolled material (KWSSIP p134)
4	NDT / PMI report, dimensional drawings	Surface and volumetric defects, chemical identity, as-built geometry	Not specified in these three documents — engineering practice
5	Heat and lot traceability sheet, packing marks	Every carton maps to a heat number and a test value	Traceability implicit in 1-3; marks not specified

Two consequences follow. The work test certificate is a standing requirement for all materials, not a heavy-section exception (KWSSIP p134), so a supplier who offers to issue certificates after delivery does not meet the clause at the gate. And mill certificates are accepted at the Project Manager’s discretion (KWSSIP p169) — discretion is a live decision, not a default; for locally rolled material the retest is mandatory, not discretionary.

Classes 4 and 5 are the honest gap: these specifications do not require NDT, PMI, dimensional drawings or packing marks. Buyers who want them must add them to the specification, because they will not be inherited.

One distinction decides how much the first document is worth. A 3.1 certificate is issued by the manufacturer’s own inspection department and carries actual test values for the heat. A 3.2 certificate goes further: the tests are witnessed or countersigned by an independent party nominated by the purchaser, which changes cost and lead time. A certificate of compliance carries neither values nor independence. The specifications quoted here sit at the 3.1 level without naming the level — a PO that needs 3.2 has to say so.

The mill test certificate checklist, field by field

The certificate is the first physical object you inspect. Read it against four things, in this order; the document itself, including the forgery patterns that show up in real shipments, is covered in how to read a material test certificate.

Heat number uniqueness. Every heat number must be unique to that heat and must appear on the packing list and on the parts where marked. A heat number reused across two test reports means at least one report is not traceable to the material in the carton.

Chemistry, carbon and sulphur-phosphorus first. Carbon drives hardness and embrittlement risk; sulphur and phosphorus are the residuals that decide whether the steel was made to a controlled practice. Compare actual values with the limits of the standard named in the PO, not with a remembered rule of thumb.

Rm in a plausible band for the grade. Tensile strength must sit inside the claimed property class. A certificate reporting a single Rm figure with no yield, elongation or hardness has the shape of a mill sheet but not the content of a work test certificate.

Cross-reference to the standard that was ordered. The certificate must name the standard and grade from the PO. In these specifications the material line-up is explicit:

Item	Required standard and grade	Anchor
Structural steel base metal	ASTM A36 (forgings A235, cast steel A27, cast iron A48)	KWSSIP p129-p130
Ordinary bolts, anchor bolts, nuts, washers	ASTM A307	KWSSIP §e p130
High-strength bolts with nuts and washers	ASTM A325, AISI B18.2 dimensions, AISC A325/A490 installation	KWSSIP §f p130; p134
Dismantling joint studs, tie bars, nuts, washers	Minimum Grade 8.8, zinc plated and passivated	KWSSIP-2 p170
Strainer fasteners	316 stainless, minimum property class 70	KWSSIP-2 p191
Structural connection bolts and nuts	ISO 898-1 / ISO 898-2, minimum 6.8, DIN 7990 / DIN 555, minimum M16	MEPCO p206
Tower bolts, 132 kV	ASTM A394 with A123 / A153 galvanizing, A325 structural bolts	MEPCO p102
CT structure bolts	Grade 6.8 to ISO 898, one flat washer and one lock washer per nut	MEPCO p311
Clamping screws for line fittings	Hot-dip galvanized class 8.8 or A2-F80 stainless, thread ≥ 10 mm; aluminium screws not permitted	MEPCO p220
Flange insulating washers and tape	PTFE / phenolic insulation to ASTM D1710, with thread tape	KWSSIP-2 p138
Washers	DIN 7989, galvanized steel or malleable iron, one per bolt	MEPCO p207
Check nuts	DIN 7967, galvanized, on all bolts	MEPCO p208

A certificate reading “A325 / 8.8 / stainless” without naming the requested standard is a rejection item, not a clarification item. The two-column comparison — PO standard on the left, certificate standard on the right — is the whole check.

Coating and salt-spray acceptance

Galvanizing is where new suppliers most often lose a shipment: coating defects are visible and measurable, and these three specifications do not all ask for the same test.

Start with the standard, not the thickness. Steel fixings — nuts, bolts, washers — must be galvanized to BS EN ISO 1461:2022 or an approved equivalent (KWSSIP-2 p124). Plates and shapes follow ASTM A123 (KWSSIP §i p130; p132), hardware including bolts, nuts, washers and lock nuts follows ASTM A153 (KWSSIP p132), and structural steel must be hot-dip galvanized after fabrication (MEPCO p208).

Then measure. Coating inspection follows ASTM A90 — coating weight and uniformity, not a visual gloss check (KWSSIP p134). This is the clause receiving teams skip most often: a bolt that looks evenly grey can still fail A90 on coating mass.

Then run the salt spray. Galvanized components must withstand 220 hours of salt spray per ASTM B117 with no corrosion failure, with the galvanizing to BS EN ISO 1461:2022 (KWSSIP-2 p120). The 220-hour figure is a specification limit, not a marketing claim: the report must state duration and acceptance criterion, and it must cover the same coating system that is on the delivered parts.

Four field checks complete the picture, each mapping to a clause:

• Finger-pressure fit. After galvanizing, bolts, nuts and washers must assemble by finger pressure (MEPCO p208). A nut that needs a wrench before it carries any load is over-thick coating or a damaged thread.
• No thread re-chasing. Bolts must be spun-galvanized, and re-chasing threads after galvanizing is prohibited (MEPCO p209). Look for bright, cut thread flanks on an otherwise grey bolt.
• Damage repair limits. Only minor galvanizing damage may be field-repaired, with three coats of zinc-rich paint (KWSSIP p132). Structural damage is a rejection, not a repair.
• Bare friction surfaces. Contact surfaces of friction-type high-strength connections must be uncoated, and blast-cleaned roughness is a critical acceptance condition before installation (KWSSIP p133). Steelwork embedded in concrete is not painted either — it is blast-cleaned and cement-washed (KWSSIP p133).

One threshold decides which coating regime a mixed carton falls under: outdoor fasteners above 10 mm are hot-dip galvanized unless stainless, and bolts above class 8.8 use a corrosion-resistant material (MEPCO p132).

Sampling and rejection rules

None of the three specifications defines an AQL, a sample size or an inspection frequency. That gap is stated rather than filled with invented numbers: a sampling plan must come from your own quality procedure or from a standard you name in the PO.

What the specifications do define is the conditions that turn a finding into a rejection.

Acceptance condition	Requirement	Anchor
Bolt hole geometry	Hole centre distance ≥ 3d; punching limited to plate thickness ≤ bolt diameter + 1/8 in	KWSSIP p131-p132
Bolt spacing	16 mm bolt → 40 mm minimum; 20 mm bolt → 50 mm	MEPCO p207
Flange bolt length	Two full threads past the nut when fully tightened, per ASME B31.1 / B31.3	KWSSIP-2 p138
Trial assembly	Complete test assembly before galvanizing or painting; disassembly needs written approval	KWSSIP p133
A325 final tightening	Only after structural alignment is complete	KWSSIP §Alignment p134
Final torque, tower bolts	10-14 kgf·m for 16 mm bolts; 17-23 kgf·m for 20 / 24 / 30 mm bolts; lock nuts fitted after final tightening	MEPCO p760
Tower acceptance	Bolt type and tightness checked by the torque wrench method, including step-bolt condition	MEPCO p770
Chemical anchoring	Approved epoxy resin cartridges, fixing held in position until the resin cures	KWSSIP-2 p123-p124
Cast-in fixings	Anchor bolts cast in during foundation construction; block-outs filled with non-shrink grout	MEPCO p169

Two of these are procedural rather than dimensional. The trial assembly clause requires a complete test assembly before galvanizing or painting, and written approval before disassembly (KWSSIP p133) — a supplier that galvanizes first and then finds an interference has no compliant path left. The tower acceptance clause is the only place in the set where the buyer’s inspection method is named: bolt type and tightness are checked with a torque wrench, and step bolts are inspected with the rest (MEPCO p770), which makes the torque column a per-bolt-group record, not a per-shipment statement.

For high-strength bolting, the split between ASTM A307 and ASTM A325 sets the whole regime: A307 covers ordinary bolts, anchor bolts, nuts and washers, A325 covers high-strength bolts with AISC A325/A490 installation practice (KWSSIP §e-§f p130). A carton mixing the two grades under one delivery note cannot be accepted item by item until the grades are separated.

What to write into the PO at RFQ stage

Everything above is a purchase-order clause before it is an inspection item. A receiving team cannot test what the specification never asked for.

1. Work test certificate for all materials, naming standard, grade and actual test values (KWSSIP p134).
2. Retest at a nominated laboratory for locally rolled material, laboratory named by the buyer (KWSSIP p134).
3. Galvanizing standard by component class — BS EN ISO 1461:2022 for fixings, ASTM A123 for plates and shapes after fabrication, ASTM A153 for hardware (KWSSIP-2 p124; KWSSIP p130, p132; MEPCO p208).
4. Coating inspection to ASTM A90 and a salt-spray report to ASTM B117 at 220 h for the delivered coating system (KWSSIP p134; KWSSIP-2 p120).
5. Post-galvanizing requirements: finger-pressure fit, no thread re-chasing, spun-galvanized bolts (MEPCO p208-p209).
6. Torque table by bolt diameter and the acceptance method (torque wrench) named explicitly (MEPCO p760, p770).
7. Packaging and protection: machined surfaces unpainted, protected with approved rust-preventive oil and wooden padding in transport; unassembled pins, keys and bolt threads greased and wrapped in moisture-proof paper (KWSSIP p133).
8. Quantity and surplus: 5% surplus of bolts, nuts, washers and check nuts, counted per component rather than per assembled set (MEPCO p207).
9. Trial assembly and the written-approval rule for disassembly before coating (KWSSIP p133).
10. The documents the tender does not cover — EN 10204 3.1 or 3.2 level, NDT, PMI, dimensional drawings, packing marks — added by the buyer, because silence in a specification is not a requirement.

Item 10 is the one most often lost. If a project needs PMI on duplex or stainless fasteners, that requirement has to exist in the PO before the order is placed; asking for it at the port is a negotiation, not an inspection.

Summary and next step

Three decisions carry the whole fastener inspection checklist. Define the document pack in the PO — work test certificate, retest for locally rolled material, coating and salt-spray reports — because those cannot be created after delivery. Verify by comparison rather than impression: certificate against ordered standard, coating weight against ASTM A90, torque against the clause table. And separate what the specification requires from what your own procedure requires, then write the second list into the PO instead of leaving it in an inspector’s head.

The same material list also drives the seven test reports a buyer should collect on every order. On water and wastewater projects the model absorbs additional PMI, elastomer and drinking-water certification checks — see fastener procurement for water treatment plants; on industrial steel structures the same document pack is set out in structural steel fastener procurement.

References

• KWSSIP Request for Bids — Plant, Vol-II Specifications, pp. 129-134, 169 (Karachi Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project, G-1 package)
• KWSSIP-2 K-IV Augmentation Works, Vol-III Technical Specifications, pp. 120, 123-124, 138, 170, 191 (Second Karachi Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project)
• MEPCO EDEIP SPD-RFB-PK-MEPCO-560389-CW-RFB-Rev01, Section VII Employer Requirements, pp. 102, 132, 169, 206-209, 220, 311, 760, 770 (World Bank procurement notice OP00461490)
• ASTM A90/A90M — Standard Test Method for Weight [Mass] of Coating on Iron and Steel Articles with Zinc or Zinc-Alloy Coatings
• ASTM B117 — Standard Practice for Operating Salt Spray (Fog) Apparatus
• ISO 1461:2022 — Hot dip galvanized coatings on fabricated iron and steel articles

If you want a second pair of eyes on a receiving package before you accept it, send us the document set — work test certificate, coating test report, torque record and the PO clause list — with the standard and grade you ordered, and our engineers will map each item against the clause it has to satisfy.