What happens between the drawing and the bulk order

The sample chair is not a miniature of your order. It is the only object that can tell you whether the drawing, the timber, the finish and the upholstery work together before 400 more are built. Here is how that 21 days is actually spent.

Published by JPChairs · Chair manufacturer in Foshan, China · 2026-10-16

Samples answer three questions, not one

Samples are not small versions of your order, and treating one as such is the fastest way to a bad approval. It answers three specific questions:

• Can it be built? Drawings resolve on paper. Samples resolve the joint detail, the bend radius, the fabric pull and whether a 25 mm seat rail actually holds a 120 kg load.
• Does it look right? Finish colour under your own lighting, sheen level, fabric hand, and the 1 to 2 mm shadow lines where panels meet.
• Does it survive use? It is the only unit you can sit in for 20 minutes, drag across a hard floor and spill coffee on before committing to the rest.

What a sample cannot tell you is how consistent 400 of them will be. That is a batch question, and it is answered by the retained reference and a written tolerance, not by the one chair on your desk.

The 21-day sample schedule

Twenty-one calendar days from a frozen specification to a sample on your desk is the realistic figure for an upholstered wooden frame. A welded metal frame runs 16 to 20 days.

• Days 1 to 2, drawings and costing. Dimensioned drawings, material list, finish code and fabric reference agreed in writing.
• Days 2 to 6, tooling and material pull. Bending jig cut for a new back rail, timber drawn from stock at 8 to 12 per cent moisture content, fabric cut from a 300 to 500 m mill lot.
• Days 5 to 12, frame build. Machining, mortise and tenon, assembly, then 48 hours of standing time before sanding.
• Days 11 to 16, finish and upholstery. Three coats with 4 to 6 hours between them, then covering at roughly 25 to 40 minutes per seat pad by hand.
• Days 16 to 18, internal check and packing. Dimensions measured against the drawing at plus or minus 2 mm, then a carton rated for a 60 cm drop.
• Days 18 to 21, freight. Air express is 3 to 5 days to Europe or North America. A 12 kg sample in a 60 x 60 x 90 cm carton runs USD 180 to 320 by air, or USD 45 to 90 by sea in 30 to 38 days.

What to measure the day it arrives

Photographs hide the three things that matter most: sheen, colour under warm light, and foam recovery. Measure instead.

• Dimensions. Seat height, seat depth and overall width to plus or minus 2 mm. A 450 mm seat delivered at 462 mm changes the clearance under a 720 mm table by the same 12 mm.
• Stability. Tilt it to the tipping angle. An unloaded four-legged chair on a 450 mm seat should resist to roughly 12 to 15 degrees.
• Finish coverage. Check the underside of the seat and the inside of the back rail. Lines finish what is visible first, so missed coverage underneath is the earliest sign of a rushed job.
• Foam recovery. Sit for 20 minutes, then measure after 60 seconds. Seat foam at 30 kg/m3 should return to within 3 mm of its original height.
• Glides. Drag it across a hard floor. Chatter means the feet are not coplanar within 0.5 mm.

Revision rounds cost days, not hours

Two revisions are normal. Three is the practical ceiling before a sample programme starts eating the bulk schedule.

Each round costs 7 to 12 days, not the 2 days the physical change takes, because the frame re-enters the queue behind production orders. The type of change matters more than the size: a change to seat height or back angle means a new frame, while a change to finish colour or fabric can often reuse it and costs only 3 to 5 days.

On cost, the first sample is normally charged at 2 to 3 times the bulk unit price, USD 120 to 320 for a mid-range upholstered chair, with the difference credited once the order passes 300 units. A second sample runs at 1.5 to 2 times. A third is usually charged at full sample rate with no credit.

Locking the reference before bulk

Once approved, the sample stops being a chair and becomes a measuring instrument. Three things have to happen for that to work:

• Mark the sample itself. Date and initials on a hidden surface, not on a card in a folder that nobody opens again.
• Record the numbers. Every dimension, the finish code, the fabric reference and dye lot, the foam density and the glide type, written onto an approval sheet attached to the purchase order.
• Keep one at the factory. The retained sample on the line is what the QC team measures against at inspection. Without it, the phrase 'matches the sample' means nothing.

Ask for the retained sample to be photographed beside the first unit off each batch of 200. It costs nothing and it is the cheapest consistency check available.

What sampling costs, and what it saves

Budget USD 250 to 600 for a sample programme on one chair model: build, internal QC, packing and air freight on 12 to 15 kg volumetric. Against a 400-chair order at USD 60 to 90 a unit, that is 1 to 2 per cent of the order value.

The saving is not the sample fee. A dimensional error caught at sample stage costs a redrawing and one more frame, roughly USD 200 and 10 days. The same error caught at inspection on 400 finished chairs costs a full re-run: USD 18,000 to 36,000 and 45 days.

Our sample and tooling route is described on the OEM sample and tooling process, and the inspection levels that apply once bulk starts are covered in the inspection FAQ.