1. Yard Intake Inspection
When material arrives at a sourcing yard it is offloaded onto a dedicated grade pad, visually inspected, weighed and sampled. The grade is confirmed against ISRI specifications (e.g. Taint, Tabor, Tense, Tread, Talon, Tooth, Tutu, Talc for aluminium; Barley, Birch, Cliff, Berry, Candy, Cobra, Cocoa for copper; Honey, Pale, Ocean for brass).
Any foreign attachments — iron inserts, plastic, rubber, glass, free liquids — are removed by manual sorting or, for high-volume streams, by eddy-current separation. Material that fails grade verification is downgraded or rejected at the yard gate.
2. Density, Moisture and Foreign-Object Checks
Density matters for container fill and freight economics; moisture matters because both smelter heats and customs declarations are quoted on dry weight. UBC bales are spot-tested for moisture using calibrated probes; turnings and chips are screened gravimetrically (oven dried, re-weighed).
Foreign-object risk — closed containers, aerosol cans, batteries, sealed pipes — is mitigated by a manual second-look on every bale and a radiation portal scan on every container before loading.
3. Radiation Screening
Every outbound container passes through a radiation portal at the loading yard, then again at the port terminal. The portal records dose rate and isotopic signature; readings above 0.1 µSv/h above background trigger an isolation protocol and removal of the suspect item.
Inspection certificates issued by SGS, BV and Cotecna include a radiation-clearance line as standard. Nautica Metal Scrap B.V. retains a radiation log for every shipment for a minimum of 7 years.
4. Chemical Composition (PMI / XRF)
When the buyer's smelter requires confirmed alloy composition — common for 6061 and 6063 aluminium extrusion, 304 and 316 stainless, and brass grades — a handheld XRF Positive Material Identification gun is used during pre-shipment inspection. Each container is sampled per ISO 4787 or ASTM E1085 protocols.
PMI results are appended to the inspection certificate and serve as the metallurgical reference if a downstream dispute arises.
5. Third-Party Pre-Shipment Inspection
The buyer nominates and pays an inspector (most commonly SGS, Bureau Veritas or Cotecna). The inspector attends the loading yard during stuffing, samples a representative percentage of containers, witnesses the sealing, and issues a numbered inspection certificate covering: grade, weight, packing, moisture, foreign attachment, radiation clearance and container/seal numbers.
The inspection certificate is part of the document pack that travels with the bill of lading and is the primary acceptance reference at the destination smelter.
6. Acceptance Criteria and Dispute Procedure
Acceptance is defined in the sales contract: typically a maximum 2% foreign-attachment tolerance for non-ferrous grades, 5% for HMS 1&2, dry-weight basis. Any variance outside contract triggers a documented variance review within 5 working days, with photographic evidence shared between buyer and seller.
Genuine variances are settled by credit note against the next shipment or by direct transfer for spot trades. Reputation matters more than any single load — every variance is investigated even when the financial exposure is small.