Oct 03, 2011 Adding to the excitement of the IPC Midwest Conference & Exhibition held last week was the first U.S. IPC hand soldering competition. Twenty-two competitors from 15 companies were tasked with building a functional electronics assembly within a half hour. Crowned the “best-of-the-best in the Midwest,” Nichole DeVries, an instructor with Raven Industries (Sioux Falls, S.D.) and certified IPC trainer (CIT), took top honors.
IPC Master Instructors Leo Lambert, EPTAC Corporation; Jay Patel, Accelper Consulting; and Floyd Bertagnolli, STM - Service To Mankind, judged the competition. Participants were awarded points based on soldering in accordance with IPC-A-610E, Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies, Class 3 criteria, the speed at which the assembly was produced and the overall functionality of the assembly. DeVries earned an impressive 97 out of 100 possible points on her assembly. As the winner, she took home a $500 grand prize from IPC and an MX-5010 workstation, compliments of OK International/Metcal. In addition, she will be traveling to San Diego in February 2012 to compete in the IPC Hand Soldering Grand Championship.
Coming in at a close second, Monica Poppens, also of Raven Industries, earned $250. William Randall, Hegel Holdings LLC DBA Minarik Drives (South Beloit, Ill.), took third place and received $100.
“The event was a great success. We already have sponsors inquiring about the next round of competition, some judges have volunteered their services and new competitors are asking to sign up,” says Kris Roberson, IPC manager of assembly technology.
On February 28-29 2012, IPC will host the IPC APEX EXPO Hand Soldering Competition that will be held in conjunction with its international conference & exhibition, IPC APEX EXPO, in San Diego. The winner of that competition will then face off with DeVries in the IPC Hand Soldering Grand Championship on March 1, vying for a $1,000 cash award and the coveted title of IPC Hand Soldering Grand Champion. For more information on the IPC APEX EXPO hand soldering competition, visit www.IPCAPEXEXPO.org/soldering.
IPC (www.IPC.org) is a global trade association based in Bannockburn, Ill., dedicated to the competitive excellence and financial success of its 3,000 member companies which represent all facets of the electronics industry, including design, printed board manufacturing, electronics assembly and test. As a member-driven organization and leading source for industry standards, training, market research and public policy advocacy, IPC supports programs to meet the needs of an estimated $1.85 trillion global electronics industry. IPC maintains additional offices in Taos, N.M.; Arlington, Va.; Stockholm, Sweden; Moscow, Russia; Bangalore, India; and Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing, China.
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