IPC Special Tooling During the formal design review prior to layout, special tooling that can be generated by the design area in the form of artwork or numerical control data shall be considered. This tooling may be needed by fabrication, assembly, or testing. Examples of such tooling are:
IPC Special Tooling Plots of numerical data to be used as check film. Buried or blind via land masters to assist in determining the location of the vias during layer fabrication for composite printed boards. Via land masters for composite printed boards to assist in distinguishing between vias that are to be drilled before lamination and vias that will be drilled after lamination.
IPC Special Tooling Artwork overlays to provide aids such as drill origin, spotter lands for nonplated through-holes without lands on the artwork, printed board coordinate zero, printed board profile, coupon profile, or profile of internal routed areas.
IPC Special Tooling Artwork for solder resist stripping which is used in some processes for solder mask over bare copper. The artwork should be designed to allow a solder resist overlap onto the solder at the copper/solder interface.
IPC Special Tooling Artwork overlays that can be used in assembly to assist with component insertion. Numerical data for auto-insert equipment at assembly. Solder paste stencil data.