IPC-A-610C, Section 8 on page 8-1 states:

"Assembly marking (part numbers, serial numbers) shall remain legible
(capable of being read and understood as defined by the requirements of this
standard) after all tests, cleaning and other processes to which the item is
subjected. Component markings, reference designators and polarity indicators
should be legible and components should be mounted in such a manner that
markings are visible. Markings are not deliberately altered..."

The "shall" specified for the assembly markings makes it a mandatory. The
"should" for the component markings and reference designators etc., make it
a nice to have but not mandatory.  Section 1 defines Conditions Not
Specified as: "Conditions that are not otherwise specified as defective or
as a process indicator are considered acceptable unless it can be
established that the condition affects end user defined form, fit or
function." This was put in there to allow component markings on assemblies
to be either hidden or missing after assembly. The new cleaning solvents
that are removing these markings were one of the reasons for this change.
The markings need to be there when the components come in but not on the
assembled board after cleaning. A

Hope this helps.
Mary Muller

> ----------
> From:         Ken Bloomquist[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     TechNet E-Mail Forum.;Ken Bloomquist
> Sent:         Monday, August 14, 2000 10:42 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      [TN] Component Markings
>
> Good Day Technetters,
>
> I have searched the archives and couldn't find the answer to my question.
>
> J-Std-001, 9.2.2, says that you can not deliberately alter, obliterate or
> remove component markings. It goes on to say that random part marking
> loss...... does not constitute deliberate obliteration. This doesn't say
> if
> the later condition is OK.
>
> We have one faction here that believes components need to have markings no
> matter what. They want us to re-mark or remove and replace any components
> that have had their markings degraded, due to the cleaning processes after
> soldering.
>
> I contend that we are doing more damage by removing and replacing these
> components than just leaving them alone. These Class 3 assemblies are
> tested
> and have traceability to the component level.
>
> Replace, Re-mark or Leave Them Alone, that is the question!
>
> Any information that could help load my cannons would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance for your responses.
>
> Ken Bloomquist
> PRIMEX Aerospace Company
> www.primextech.com
>
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