Most problems with a first roll order come from a specification that left something out, not from the factory. This checklist is what we ask every new customer, in the order that avoids back-and-forth.
1. Say what the material has to do
Before any numbers, one sentence on the job: reflect light in a grow room, hold heat in an enclosure, line a cooler bag, wrap a duct. That sentence decides the family of construction faster than a page of parameters.
2. Name the construction
Reflective face (metallised film or foil), its finish or emboss, the carrier (scrim, foam, bubble, kraft, PE), and the second face. If you have a competitor’s material, send a swatch; matching a sample is faster and safer than describing it.
3. Give the dimensions
Roll width in millimetres, roll length in metres, core inner diameter, and the maximum roll diameter or weight your line can handle. Say whether you need the material slit to several widths.
Keep a unit beside every value. The unit converter helps check mil, micrometres and millimetres: one mil is exactly 25.4 micrometres, not one millimetre. State whether thickness means one layer or the complete laminate.
Include the number of rolls. Use the roll area and net weight calculator to check total area and, with measured GSM, estimated net material mass. This excludes cores, packaging, pallets and waste allowances; leave GSM unknown if you have not measured or confirmed it.
Say which price basis you want on the quotation, per linear metre or per square metre, and we will state the width the figure is quoted at. A per-metre price without its width cannot be compared with another supplier’s, and that comparison is usually the point of asking.
4. State the performance you will hold us to
Only what matters for the job: gsm, film thickness, tear strength, reflectivity or emissivity, temperature range, fire class. For each, name the test standard. A figure without a standard cannot be checked.
For a sample check, use the sample GSM calculator with the complete laminate’s measured area and net mass, excluding the weighing container. In a hypothetical example, three 100 × 100 mm samples cover 0.03 m²; a combined mass of 3.6 g gives 120 g/m². This is an arithmetic example, not a product specification or laboratory acceptance test. GSM is mass per area, not thickness.
5. Tell us the destination market
Certification needs differ: REACH and RoHS screening for Europe, CPAI-84 for tent fabrics in North America, EN 13501-1 for building products in the EU. Knowing the market lets us quote the right grade and the right paperwork the first time.
6. Packaging and marking
How rolls should be wrapped, whether you need pallets or loose rolls in a container, and what the roll label must show: your part number, batch, width, length, production date.
For shipping, distinguish net material mass from gross mass including cores and packaging. Enter packed outside dimensions and the carrier’s divisor in the package volume and dimensional weight tool. Confirm the carrier’s measuring, rounding and minimum-charge rules separately; the calculation is not a freight quote or final billable weight.
7. Ask for these back
A written quotation naming the construction, a technical data sheet for that construction, the test reports behind any claimed figure, and a swatch or a short roll before the full order. Approve the swatch in writing and refer to it on the purchase order.
Before sending, use the free inquiry brief builder to organise known requirements and open questions into an editable English draft. Ask for written confirmation of available dimensions, tolerances, MOQ, lead time, sample arrangements and document scope. Review the draft before adding it to an inquiry: generating, copying or downloading it does not submit anything or confirm an order specification.
Do this once and repeat orders become a one-line email. Start with your first spec and we will fill in anything missing.