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 ############################################################## TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ############################################################## To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TECHNET ############################################################## Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information. If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5365 ##############################################################