If I may inject my opinion into this discussion, from the photo shown, this should be a rejectable condition to EITHER IPC-A-600G or the IPC-610. These cracks will absorb solutions by capillary action, and lower the insulation resistance to probable failure in field usage. Not knowing the supplier of the product, nor the type of soldermask used, my opinion may be biased, but the cracks pictured are common when a certain soldermask is used. If the panel is "flexed" (during photo development of a LPISM), these cracks are common, if the flexure occurs prior to baking to full cure. The SM does not develop any flexibility until after the bake cure. I cannot state whose SM does this, out of respect for the supplier of the SM, but a change to a different supplier's LPISM eliminated this problem when we had a similar cracking problem. We learned the hard way, by losing an entire production lot for cracks, but since changing suppliers, we have not had any problems. Dennis J. Cantwell R & D Liaison Printed Circuits, Inc. 1200 West 96th Street Minneapolis, MN 55431-2699 952-888-7900 [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: IPC-600-6012 [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Knapp, Clarence W. Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 4:16 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [IPC-600-6012] Inspection of Solder Resist I just run into a problem between IPC-A-600 and IPC-A-610. In the IPC 600 Solder Resist cracking is not addressed with the waves and wrinkles so it is not inspected for and generally ignored. However, IPC-A-610 states that crack of the resist is a rejection. The enclosed picture is an example of the crack on bare board. <<DSCN2423.JPG>> Clarence W Knapp M&P Engineering Ph 818 715 2478 Fx 818 719 7769 [log in to unmask]