This is an interesting note Jason ; for all the wrong reasons (kidding) ; just when you say "manufacture boards pretty well" ; it makes a logical paradox with "letting defects escape" . Something peculiar must have made you write this one . The way I see it the lateral ties between testing ; process ; flow ; componentry ; repair ; report ; feedback ; timelines ;R&D ; etc. operate nowadays (with product changeover sometimes 6, even 3 months (OEM's) with such an intensity ; that unless you have A very good reasons to change this nucleus you don't, as a general standard . Working on few continents ; in PC industry especially (as you know better than me) : yes you import boards for final assembly with plastics ; but the boards have to be burned in ; accepting untested boards I'd see disadvantageous to all parties involved . So far it's happening more other way = companies contract anything else , but the final assembly (being their life line) . Mind you ; most likely scenario on the busted boards is they've been tested ; but on things like motherboards it takes little : flex, partial ESD; dry joints; Werner even mentioned effects of excessive testing (overcycled) . The odds against a complex card are pretty stiff ; that's why even conformal coating is called on for mechanical aid quite often . Would you trust somebody else with your final assy ? That poor ol' printer bearing IBM logo shivered on my home desk . But still ; seen a lot of things shipped from Asia being stamped with "Made in Wherever else" . With resident inspector or similar arrangements you can do wonders in the most unlikely places , with favorable COG's . This is an horses for courses question, hard to say : What prompted you to this line of thought Jason ; card subies driving you up the wall ? Paul Klasek http://www.resmed.com > ---------- > From: <Jason M. Smith>[SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Saturday, 26 September 1998 1:07 > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: [TN] test and packaging > > Is there a big market in the electronics industry for a company just > to do final > packaging of electronic assembly? I have the feel that a lot of big > companies > manufacture boards pretty well, but test and letting defects escape > out to their > customers seem to be a problem. Do you guys think that companies > would go for > contracting out the manual final assembly to a shop that would just do > the > assembly for them? Is this a big problem in industry? > > Jason Smith > Process Materials Engineer > Lexmark Electronics > > ################################################################ > 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 > ################################################################ > ################################################################ 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 ################################################################