Bob There are many ways to answer that question but, I think the right one is directly related to what happens when it all goes pear-shaped. In the first instance, someone or something has been affected by the failure of the product. Now the lawyers are on your case: "What procedure did you use to manufacture and test the product?" Your own? Right, then you carry the costs. Or, you could rely on a suitable standard. IPC? Well, no offense to IPC, but it is a trade association, so what are the endorsements of the documents you relied upon? Linked to ANSI - American National Standards Institute? Ah! Now things look a little brighter for you. Linked in turn to International Standards IEC or ISO, even better. It doesn't exonerate you completely, but it sure helps in damage limitation! Gross oversimplification but I hope this helps. Kindest regards Graham Naisbitt [log in to unmask] www.gen3systems.com Phone: +44 (0)12 5252 1500 Mobile: +44 (0) 79 6858 2121 --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------