Jamie; The IPC conducted a Small Hole Round Robin test program a few years ago. The number of the resulting report is IPC-TR-579. In this report, it was noted that with certain aspect ratio holes, the barrels failed in the resin rich areas. This indicates that non-functional lands should be kept in the construction, for some types of holes. These results led us to recommend that non-functional lands be kept on inner layers, in the IPC-D-275 (1991). We also noted that with high layer counts that it is desireable to remove some of the lands to reduce the compression effect, during lamination. Board fabricators like the removal of the lands, since it reduces the opportunity for defects on the inner layers. However, the long term reliability of the product should overide any decision about removal of inner layer non-functional lands. If you contact the IPC office, they can provide you with a copy of the report. Regards, Gary Ferrari