Silk costs money and is a general pain to place at design and also 
     adds costs.  However the decision to use silk should be based on the 
     design.  I know of many instances where things like jumper settings 
     are put on the PCA in silk.  Silk is not just used by component 
     assembly houses, but also at box assembly level and also by Service 
     folks who need reference designators and ID marks to do their job.
     
     Silk also provides an easy reference to communicate locations causing 
     problems.
     
     Use silk if you need it, otherwise don't.  However understand who uses 
     this information before not using it.
     
     My two cents.
     
     [log in to unmask]


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: RE: FAB:    Silk-screen ink on surface mount pads
Author:  [log in to unmask] at Dell_UNIX
Date:    5/31/96 8:21 AM


     
 TOM..
      I totally agree with you. You do have an assembly drawing that gives
  you the reference designation of a part and on a production job, with all 
  the automation and transfer of information from a common database,
  who cares!!!  In many cases, especially with high density SMT assembilies, 
  you cannot put the ref des anywhere near the part, which only adds to the 
  confusing. The MIL-STD IEEE Std 200 para 8.1, states that ref des must be 
  on the PWB except: "Where space limitations preclude such marking".
     That being said, our circuit engineers, inspection and test/rework
  communities use them extensivly during the prototype/pre-production phase 
  of a job and I would attempt to please them. Once passed that, I would 
  delete them.            
                                              Regards,
                                                        Bob Vanech