Flexible Bird Spike Strip Specifications: What to Put in Your RFQ

A specification for flexible bird spike strips is only useful if it is unambiguous to someone who cannot see your project. Most disputes on this product do not come from bad manufacturing — they come from a drawing that could reasonably be read two ways, where the supplier read it the cheap way and the buyer read it the expensive way.

This is a practical specification checklist, written around what the standards actually require.

The three specification families you will meet

Suppliers will quote against whichever family your market uses, and the part can usually be built to any of them:

• ISO 4892-2 — weathering of the flexible base.
• ISO 37 — tensile and elongation of the elastomeric base.
• ISO 9227 — salt spray on the pins.

The mistake is to specify a standard reference without specifying the class or grade within it. If you write only the standard number, the supplier will quote the lowest class that satisfies it. Write the standard and the level you want.

Dimensional data that has to be on the drawing

For this product the critical dimensions are: roll of 10–50 m; base width 20–25 mm; pin height 110–150 mm; bends down to a 150 mm radius without kinking pins.

Three rules that prevent most dimensional disputes:

1. Give tolerances on every functional dimension, not just the nominal values. A nominal dimension with no tolerance is legally “as the supplier chooses”.
2. Say which dimensions are functional and which are cosmetic. Suppliers prioritise what you prioritise, and they cannot guess.
3. State the gauge or measuring method where a dimension is critical. Two inspectors with different methods will disagree about the same part.

Material and grade

The base specification is flexible PVC or soft-PC base strip with moulded-in stainless pins, supplied coiled. Grades commonly offered include:

• flexible PVC base, 304 pins
• flexible PVC base, 316 pins (coastal)
• ultra-flex roll for signage channels

Ask the supplier to state the grade on the quotation, not on an assumption. Grade substitution is the single most common silent cost reduction, and it is usually invisible in the finished part — a 201 stainless component looks exactly like a 304 one until the second winter.

Surface treatment

The usual finish for this product is bare stainless pins; base in grey or translucent.

Two points worth writing into the order:

• A measured requirement, not a process name. “Hot-dip galvanised” is a process; “70 µm minimum, tested by coating mass on three parts per batch” is a requirement.
• What happens at cut edges and drilled holes, if any. These are where coatings are habitually broken and where corrosion starts.

Type tests and routine tests

These are different things and are frequently confused in quotations:

• Type tests qualify the design once. On this product: repeat-bend test 500 cycles at 150 mm radius without pin loss; pin pull-off ≥ 40 N; UV ageing 2000 h.
• Routine tests are run on every batch: roll memory check (uncoiled strips lie flat within 10 minutes).

Specify which type-test reports you want supplied as documents, and which routine test results must accompany each shipment. On a first order, ask for the type-test report before you place it.

The failure modes your specification should be closing

• Plasticiser bloom — cheap plasticiser migrates to the surface leaving a tacky film that catches dust and darkens the strip
• Pins falling out after coiling — pins inserted after the base cooled instead of moulded-in while hot; the coil stress pulls them out
• Permanent curl — strip stored coiled too long at high temperature; it never lies flat and the installation looks second-hand on day one

Each of these can be turned into one line in the specification. That is the real purpose of writing it out: not bureaucracy, but making the specific failure you are worried about somebody’s explicit responsibility.

A specification skeleton you can reuse

1. Scope: Flexible Bird Spike Strip to be supplied as flexible bird spikes, PVC bird spike roll, bendable anti-bird strip, curved surface spikes.
2. Dimensions and tolerances: roll of 10–50 m; base width 20–25 mm; pin height 110–150 mm; bends down to a 150 mm radius without kinking pins.
3. Material: flexible PVC or soft-PC base strip with moulded-in stainless pins, supplied coiled; grade flexible PVC base, 304 pins or better.
4. Standard: ISO 4892-2 — weathering of the flexible base; ISO 37 — tensile and elongation of the elastomeric base; ISO 9227 — salt spray on the pins.
5. Finish: bare stainless pins; base in grey or translucent.
6. Tests: repeat-bend test 500 cycles at 150 mm radius without pin loss; pin pull-off ≥ 40 N; UV ageing 2000 h; roll memory check (uncoiled strips lie flat within 10 minutes).
7. Marking and packing: coiled on a spool, 2 spools per carton; never flat-packed.
8. Inspection: pre-shipment, against this specification, with photo evidence and test records.

Related: the flexible bird spike strip quality inspection checklist turns this specification into an inspection plan you can hand to a third-party inspector.