Ken, All Concerned: - There is quite a big philosophical difference between IPC-A-610 and J/STD-001. - Think of IPC-A-610 as a big "picture book" that shows how a particular attribute should look. The A-610 is great when teaching operators who have English language comprehension problems because an awful lot can be communicated by examining the features of each image, drawing or photo. The "down side" of A-610 is that all considerations of process or material control are abdicated/ignored. With A-610 you can use whatever process and whatever materials you want, and as long as it looks like the acceptable conditions depicted, the product is OK. - Think of J/STD-001 as a distant cousin of the now-defunct Mil-Specs. The J/STD places a lot of emphasis on process control throughout the assembly activity. Such things as pre-assembly cleanliness, pre-assembly solderability, limits on the quantity of defects/process indicators (expressed in parts per million), post assembly cleanliness (analytical extractive tests instead of visual examination), etc., etc., etc. Yes, most of the acceptance criteria identified by J/STD-001 are included in IPC-A-610, the big difference is that when using J/STD-001 you are obligated to use controlled and documented processes to assemble the product. The "down side" of the J/STD-001 (if you want to call it that) is that you have to know what you are doing, know how to control your processes and have documented process control instructions. - It is important for the user of either J/STD-001 or IPC-A-610 to fully understand that invoking one of the documents by contract does NOT invoke the other document. If you ask for products that meet IPC-A-610 you are not paying for, and should not expect to get, the process controls, cleanliness levels, etc., associated with J/STD-001. Conversely, when invoking J/STD-001 by contract you are not paying for, and will probably not get, all of the criteria of IPC-A-610 since A-610 covers several technical areas not addressed by J/STD-001 (mechanical assemblies, jumper wires, solderless (wire) wrap, etc., etc. - Hope the above eliminates some confusion. Jim Moffitt, Technical Director, Electronics Training Advantage, Indianapolis, IN --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF TECHNET Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------