CFX Self-Validation and Qualification System
The CFX Self-Validation and Qualification System is a cloud-based online test bed for validating and qualifying CFX implementations. The CFX QPL is a roster of devices that have met third-party audit requirements to demonstrate their capabilities of CFX integrations and CFX capabilities within specific products.
Understanding and using the CFX-QPL for your smart manufacturing lines is explained for you as a Device Vendor or a Device Buyer.
How to Use the QPL as an Equipment/Device Buyer
The CFX QPL provides a clear and transparent view of device capabilities based on IPC-2591, Connected Factory Exchange (CFX). If you are looking to buy CFX-enabled equipment for your smart manufacturing lines or to simplify shop floor integrations, use following guide to interpret CFX QPL listings.
Understanding QPL Listings
Model Number: Identifies the exact model that has been validated.
Qualified Version: This displays the vendor software version used during qualification. Devices with different software versions than those listed on the QPL are not qualified products. To ensure proper integration, ask your vendor to update their QPL listing to their current software version.
Date of Qualification: The date the device/equipment passed qualification.
Responsibility Declaration: Each qualification includes a statement of responsibility for the CFX implementation: the equipment vendor or a third-party integrator.
Classification: Specifies the device category (SPI, pick and place, oven, AOI/AXI, etc.).
Capabilities: Shows the Optional capabilities to which a vendor has qualified their device/equipment. Clicking the View Qualifications button will display a listing for all the Mandatory capabilities as well as the Optional capabilities available to and qualified for the device/equipment.
of IPC-CFX Mandatory and Option Capabilities and Associated Message.
QPL Listings for Legacy Support Products
Beginning with IPC-2591, Version 2.0, the standard and QPL allow for qualification demonstration for suppliers of legacy support products that can be used for CFX factory lines. QPL listings for these products will include the equipment/device model number and the software versions for both the equipment/device and the legacy support product.
These listings enable these suppliers to demonstrate their CFX capabilities for specific QPL device types, but do not assume that those products will work out of the box for any piece of equipment.
Buyer Best Practices
✅ Ask Vendors About Software Versions: A QPL listing does not guarantee that the version installed on your purchased equipment will be the qualified version. Always confirm before purchase.
✅ Request Pre-Shipment Testing: Ask the vendor to run a CFX validation test on equipment before shipping to verify it will meet your connectivity needs.
✅ For Legacy Support Products: Discuss your CFX needs and current equipment configurations with those suppliers. If possible, request qualifications using device models and software versions for equipment on your shop floor.
✅ Work with Vendors Using the IPC-CFX Self-Validation System: Vendors who subscribe to IPC’s validation system can pre-qualify software upgrades and test implementations before shipment.
- A listing on the IPC-CFX-2591 QPL does not guarantee a qualified implementation by the vendor before shipping product to the customer.
- Before purchasing a product, IPC encourages companies to talk with their vendor about their qualified software version and if it matches what will be on the equipment. You should also ask the vendor to test a piece of equipment’s IPC-CFX implementation before shipping. Those with active subscriptions to the IPC-CFX Validation and Qualification System will have the ability to do this.
Why Manufacturers Should Subscribe to the IPC-CFX Validation System
Ensure Seamless CFX Implementation and Future-Proof Your Factory
For EMS, OEM and other companies adopting CFX, implementing CFX is more than just selecting the right equipment—it’s about ensuring interoperability, minimizing integration risks, and maximizing the value of your investments. With a subscription to the CFX Self-Validation System, your company gains the ability to:
✅ Test QPL-Listed Equipment Before Deployment – Verify that purchased QPL equipment is broadcasting and consuming CFX messages correctly before installation. Reduce the risk of post-deployment failures.
✅ Validate Third-Party & Legacy Equipment Integrations – Use the cloud-based testbed to assess and troubleshoot CFX implementations for third-party software, middleware solutions, or retrofitted legacy machines.
✅ Accelerate Smart Factory Deployments – Identify and resolve compatibility issues early to streamline your Factory of the Future transformation and connect your entire production floor without delays.
✅ Access an Industry-Proven CFX Test Environment – The validation system provides a trusted, vendor-neutral environment to simulate real-world CFX communications, ensuring smooth integration across machines, lines, and factory-wide systems.
✅ Boost Internal Expertise & Reduce Integration Costs – Empower your engineering and IT teams with hands-on access to validation tools and message analysis, minimizing reliance on external integrators and costly troubleshooting.
🔹 Be in Control of Your CFX Implementation—Subscribe Today!
Request More Information
How to Use the QPL as an Equipment/Device Vendor
The CFX Self-Validation and Qualification Process
🔹 Step 1: Subscribe to the CFX Self-Validation System – as a subscriber, you get unlimited system access for your employees and unlimited device self-validation
🔹Step 2: Use the system to test your equipment’s CFX implementation
🔹Step 3: Once the system shows 100% success, submit validated equipment for automated electronic audit.
🔹Step 4: Once the audit system confirms compliance, your model instantly receives a CFX QPL listing.
What the Self-Validation System Confirms
✔ Correct network identification and subscription messages
✔ Equipment/device supports all mandatory CFX topics
✔ Message content data format meets IPC-2591 requirements
✔ Equipment is broadcasting and consuming CFX messages in accordance with IPC-2591 requirements
Key Benefits:
- The automated audit process reduces manual effort, speeds up qualification, and ensures continuous compliance with IPC-CFX standards.
- Active subscriptions include unlimited qualifications, providing the opportunity to qualify the entire fleet of vendor devices and requalify with each software upgrade.
- IPC announces all equipment qualifications, increasing industry awareness of vendors’ CFX support.
Request More Information
IPC-2591(CFX) Qualified Products List (QPL)
Successful utilization of IPC-CFX on the shop floor requires confidence and trust that the equipment has been qualified for IPC-CFX by an independent third party. To provide the electronics industry with this assurance, any equipment vendor with a subscription to the IPC-CFX Self-Validation System can submit equipment models for listing on the IPC-CFX-2591 Qualified Products List (QPL).
CFX Mandatory & Optional Capability Requirements
Do you need a quick reference guide to see mandatory and optional messaging requirements to meet IPC-CFX? Click here to download the IPC-CFX Message Requirements
EMS and OEM Companies
EMS and OEM companies can view all IPC-CFX-2591 QPL-listed equipment to make the best purchasing decisions for their IPC-CFX needs. If you are working with an equipment vendor who indicates their equipment meets the mandatory message sets according to IPC-2591 and is not listed, ask them to demonstrate their capabilities with a QPL listing.
How to Use the QPL as an Equipment/Device Buyer
The CFX QPL provides a clear and transparent view of device capabilities based on IPC-2591, Connected Factory Exchange (CFX). If you are looking to buy CFX-enabled equipment for your smart manufacturing lines or to simplify shop floor integrations, use following guide to interpret CFX QPL listings.
Understanding QPL Listings
Model Number: Identifies the exact model that has been validated.
Qualified Version: This displays the vendor software version used during qualification. Devices with different software versions than those listed on the QPL are not qualified products. To ensure proper integration, ask your vendor to update their QPL listing to their current software version.
Date of Qualification: The date the device/equipment passed qualification.
Responsibility Declaration: Each qualification includes a statement of responsibility for the CFX implementation: the equipment vendor or a third-party integrator.
Classification: Specifies the device category (SPI, pick and place, oven, AOI/AXI, etc.).
Capabilities: Shows the Optional capabilities to which a vendor has qualified their device/equipment. Clicking the View Qualifications button will display a listing for all the Mandatory capabilities as well as the Optional capabilities available to and qualified for the device/equipment.
of IPC-CFX Mandatory and Option Capabilities and Associated Message.
QPL Listings for Legacy Support Products
Beginning with IPC-2591, Version 2.0, the standard and QPL allow for qualification demonstration for suppliers of legacy support products that can be used for CFX factory lines. QPL listings for these products will include the equipment/device model number and the software versions for both the equipment/device and the legacy support product.
These listings enable these suppliers to demonstrate their CFX capabilities for specific QPL device types, but do not assume that those products will work out of the box for any piece of equipment.
Buyer Best Practices
✅ Ask Vendors About Software Versions: A QPL listing does not guarantee that the version installed on your purchased equipment will be the qualified version. Always confirm before purchase.
✅ Request Pre-Shipment Testing: Ask the vendor to run a CFX validation test on equipment before shipping to verify it will meet your connectivity needs.
✅ For Legacy Support Products: Discuss your CFX needs and current equipment configurations with those suppliers. If possible, request qualifications using device models and software versions for equipment on your shop floor.
✅ Work with Vendors Using the IPC-CFX Self-Validation System: Vendors who subscribe to IPC’s validation system can pre-qualify software upgrades and test implementations before shipment.
- A listing on the IPC-CFX-2591 QPL does not guarantee a qualified implementation by the vendor before shipping product to the customer.
- Before purchasing a product, IPC encourages companies to talk with their vendor about their qualified software version and if it matches what will be on the equipment. You should also ask the vendor to test a piece of equipment’s IPC-CFX implementation before shipping. Those with active subscriptions to the IPC-CFX Validation and Qualification System will have the ability to do this.
Why Manufacturers Should Subscribe to the IPC-CFX Validation System
Ensure Seamless CFX Implementation and Future-Proof Your Factory
For EMS, OEM and other companies adopting CFX, implementing CFX is more than just selecting the right equipment—it’s about ensuring interoperability, minimizing integration risks, and maximizing the value of your investments. With a subscription to the CFX Self-Validation System, your company gains the ability to:
✅ Test QPL-Listed Equipment Before Deployment – Verify that purchased QPL equipment is broadcasting and consuming CFX messages correctly before installation. Reduce the risk of post-deployment failures.
✅ Validate Third-Party & Legacy Equipment Integrations – Use the cloud-based testbed to assess and troubleshoot CFX implementations for third-party software, middleware solutions, or retrofitted legacy machines.
✅ Accelerate Smart Factory Deployments – Identify and resolve compatibility issues early to streamline your Factory of the Future transformation and connect your entire production floor without delays.
✅ Access an Industry-Proven CFX Test Environment – The validation system provides a trusted, vendor-neutral environment to simulate real-world CFX communications, ensuring smooth integration across machines, lines, and factory-wide systems.
✅ Boost Internal Expertise & Reduce Integration Costs – Empower your engineering and IT teams with hands-on access to validation tools and message analysis, minimizing reliance on external integrators and costly troubleshooting.
🔹 Be in Control of Your CFX Implementation—Subscribe Today!
Request More Information
How to Use the QPL as an Equipment/Device Vendor
The CFX Self-Validation and Qualification Process
🔹 Step 1: Subscribe to the CFX Self-Validation System – as a subscriber, you get unlimited system access for your employees and unlimited device self-validation
🔹Step 2: Use the system to test your equipment’s CFX implementation
🔹Step 3: Once the system shows 100% success, submit validated equipment for automated electronic audit.
🔹Step 4: Once the audit system confirms compliance, your model instantly receives a CFX QPL listing.
What the Self-Validation System Confirms
✔ Correct network identification and subscription messages
✔ Equipment/device supports all mandatory CFX topics
✔ Message content data format meets IPC-2591 requirements
✔ Equipment is broadcasting and consuming CFX messages in accordance with IPC-2591 requirements
Key Benefits:
- The automated audit process reduces manual effort, speeds up qualification, and ensures continuous compliance with IPC-CFX standards.
- Active subscriptions include unlimited qualifications, providing the opportunity to qualify the entire fleet of vendor devices and requalify with each software upgrade.
- IPC announces all equipment qualifications, increasing industry awareness of vendors’ CFX support.
Request More Information
IPC-2591(CFX) Qualified Products List (QPL)
Successful utilization of IPC-CFX on the shop floor requires confidence and trust that the equipment has been qualified for IPC-CFX by an independent third party. To provide the electronics industry with this assurance, any equipment vendor with a subscription to the IPC-CFX Self-Validation System can submit equipment models for listing on the IPC-CFX-2591 Qualified Products List (QPL).
CFX Mandatory & Optional Capability Requirements
Do you need a quick reference guide to see mandatory and optional messaging requirements to meet IPC-CFX? Click here to download the IPC-CFX Message Requirements
EMS and OEM Companies
EMS and OEM companies can view all IPC-CFX-2591 QPL-listed equipment to make the best purchasing decisions for their IPC-CFX needs. If you are working with an equipment vendor who indicates their equipment meets the mandatory message sets according to IPC-2591 and is not listed, ask them to demonstrate their capabilities with a QPL listing.