This standard establishes the requirements for the omnidirectional exchange of information between manufacturing processes and associated host systems for assembly manufacturing. This standard applies to communication between all executable processes in the manufacture of printed board assemblies, automated, semiautomated and manual, and is applicable to related mechanical assembly and transactional processes. IPC-2591, Version 1.7 includes enhancements for closed-loop between AOI and SPI and fields added to Heartbeat to provide repeated active fault and recipe information in each message. Visit www.ipc-cfx.org for software developer resources, training programs and information on the IPC-CFX-2591 Validation System and Qualified Products List (QPL).