Oh man let me tell you the nightmare you are about to embark on. At my last employer they allowed the board house to set panel count and size. Now this is not to much of a problem if you only deal with one board shop but we used 4 board shops. And of course every one of them did something different. So for the same Assembly I had to have 4 stencils ( one for each of the different board shops ) 4 pick and place programs ( every one of them used different rail and step and repeat sizes ). Talk about a major nightmare and this doesn't count for the times they needed a quick turn on boards and did not tell you about it until they wanted to run the boards that is. The process group was constantly writing new programs and buying stencils. Now how did they get into this mess and what did I do to fix it? Well they got into this by letting the sales department drive purchasing and manufacturing. The whole reason for doing this from the sale's departments perspective was that by letting the board shop set the panel and rail widths we got better pricing ( any where from 10 to 50 cents per board) and hey we all know what the sales people did they let the board house do what they wanted. But what nobody did until I got there was explain how much this was costing us in down time and tooling. After I got though with collecting all of the data my conclusions were we ended up spending about $1.00 per board to save 50 cents per board. This former employer no longer lets there board house set the rules. But they do let the board house that will be the primary supplier for the particular board have input into how we layout our panels before we set it into stone. That way sales gets what they want, a cheaper board, and manufacturing gets what they want a consistent board layout across venders. So what I would do if I were you, get the primary board supplier's input for a optimal panel layout. Then take that and put it on your drawing and fab instructions that way if you do go to another board shop they will have to make the board to your drawing that now includes the panel layout. I always include a panel layout in fab instructions but I also ask the board house for input before laying it in stone. With the board shops help I can get a lower cost board. Later Richard Jackson Ken Patel <[log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask] COM> cc: Sent by: Subject: [TN] Single v/s panel info on drawing & gerber TechNet <[log in to unmask] ORG> 03/10/2000 11:21 AM Please respond to "TechNet E-Mail Forum."; Please respond to Ken Patel Assembly folks / layout guys / Stencil guys, We received a fab drawing and gerber for single board but in reality it's a panel or an array. My design guy says that leave it to fab house on selection of panel size. It's a common practice. He thinks that different fabs work with different materials and processes. I do not agree with him for the following reasons. What do you think guys, particularly in assembly house! (1) Stencil making will be a trouble one as person is going to order based on gerber unless someone tell him else he has to order another one. (2) What if the job is shifted to different fab vendor. We have to start complete process again if panel size is different. (3) Machine programming modification, (4) New wave fixturing.....and many more Any valuable inputs will be appreciated. re, ken patel ______________________________________________________ Ken Patel Phone: (408) 490-6804 1708 McCarthy Blvd. Fax: (408) 490-6859 Milpitas, CA 95035 Beeper: (888) 769-1808 ############################################################## 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 Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ############################################################## ############################################################## 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 Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ##############################################################