In a message dated 02/03/2000 1:08:10 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

>  I work for a contract electronic assembly facility.  We are kicking
>  around the idea of qualifying our 'process' to BellCore GR-78-CORE.  I have
>  a copy of the technical references from BellCore but I am looking for help
>  regarding a 'recipe' of events or milestones to guide us through this maze.

Wade,
There are a number of test laboratories out there who can do the testing in
GR-78-CORE, Chapters 13 and 14.  We provide such a service and I see that
Susan Mansilla of Robisan has also indicated she does such testing (and does
a fine job at it).

I wanted to pass along the experience of a client of ours who wanted to do
the same thing that you propose - having thier house become Bellcore
Certified.  This means that Bellcore, or more appropriately Telcordia
Technologies, would give their stamp of approval to the process.  The client
was a medium sided contract assembler that is rapidly expanding.  As a
contract assembler, they have a wide mix of materials in house, with the
possibility of a new mix of materials that comes in with every new job.
Bellcore takes the approach that each possible combination of materials
represents a unique process and must be qualified separately.  So, if you
have two different laminates, say FR4 and Polyimide, three different solder
masks, two different metalizations, and 4 possible fluxes, you have a total
number of 48 different processes to qualify.  Throw in different solder
pastes, rework procedures, conformal coatings, etc., and you can see how the
testing can rise exponentially.  If you are doing Bellcore testing for the
first time, you have to generate eight test samples (Bellcore coupon) per
process, per week, until you build up a database showing consistency of the
process, then you have to do the testing at least monthly.  You can imagine
the cost to have an independent lab doing such a high level of testing.

We worked to generate a months worth of data on some selected mainstream
processes for the client to take to Bellcore.  Bellcore gave them a price of
$250,000, just for putting their stamp of approval on the data.  In addition,
Bellcore wanted another astronomical sum to come and watch us as we did the
testing (which means repeating the testing with them watching).  After the
sales and marketing manager got over his coronary, the client decided that
the Bellcore impremantur was not all that desirable.  I suggested that they
retain their testing, worked into a suitable report format, to demonstrate to
their telecommunications clients that their process was "Bellcore-capable",
although not precisely Bellcore "compliant".  They have followed that line of
thinking and their customers seem to accept that.

Doug Pauls
Technical Director
CSL

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