IPC requirements are a self declared set of very good and constantly improving design and acceptance guidelines, plus a lot more. Each individual company, having unique design and acceptance requirements should have equally unique standards and specifications for them. Part of the process required for creating them is to reference IPC requirements whenever applicable. This is why there are various guidline classifications indicated for various product levels in IPC. It then becomes very simply for you to formulate your particular requirements based on information supplied by IPC concerning initial quality and long term reliability guidelines and test methods. Another way to look at it is from a design for manufacturing (DFM)prospective. What do you need at the design level to create product capable of being manufactured and accepted in all subsequent processes - to the final customer? As the DFM process requires concurrent engineering (CE), derive input from all your customers (contract requirements), and manufacturing, quality, purchasing, and supplier personnel. Once created, your unique standards, master and assembly drawings, and acceptance specifications will be clearly understood and used by all. Whether your product is accepted is another matter, but it will improve when you get a handle on this important issue. Earl Moon ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################