Hello Chris and Bill, Chris did a good job of summing up the purpose of the Class 3/A requirement, as it currently exists in IPC-6012C from April 2010. The intent was to list commonly used performance attributes within internal military/aerospace OEM specifications, such that Class 3/A could be specified in OEM procurement documentation, instead of those OEMS calling out IPC- 6012 and then their own separate set of requirements for military and aerospace. Here's a future FYI - As another "Class", Class 3/A will be retired in favor on a set of Addendum standards to the IPC-6012. For example, the IPC-J-STD-001 soldering specfication does not make use of a Class 3/A. Instead, there is a separate Space Addendum standard which reflects specific requirements for the space industry that deviate from Class 3 requirements in IPC-J-STD-001. If someone wants to specify those requirements for space applications, they have to specify the IPC-J-STD-001ES Space Addendum. Those requirements are not found in the base IPC-J-STD-001E. We are going to use that same approach and migrate away from IPC-6012 Class 3/A to an IPC 6012 Military or Aerospace Addendum. As we have found in the industry, when you create another Class, many people think that they have to have product built to that Class, or else the product is junk. For example, many people require Class 3 performance requirements when, for their end product application, Class 2 will work just fine - there are those who think Class 2 product is "bad". We are starting to see the same problem with Class 3/A, and we are going to circumvent that problem by doing away with it and going the route of separate standard addendums as has been done with IPC-J-STD-001. --------------------------------------------------- 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.aspx?Pageid=E-mail-Forums for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------