IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries® has extended the deadline of their invitation for engineers, researchers, academics, technical experts and industry leaders to submit abstracts for IPC APEX EXPO 2019 to be held at the San Diego Convention Center. The technical conference will take place January 29–31, 2019. The extended deadline for technical conference abstracts is June 29, 2018.

IPC launched a global survey of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the electronics industry this week. This confidential survey is part of a global data collection effort for the development of IPC’s 2018 PCB Technology Trends study. The deadline for OEM survey responses is July 6.

The competition was fierce as 27 competitors went soldering iron to soldering iron in IPC’s Hand Soldering Regional Qualification Competition at SMT Hybrid Packaging 2018 in Nuremberg, Germany. Of the 27 boards submitted by the competitors only four of the electronic assemblies were functional. Taking first place and a cash prize of €300 was Catherine Cardinal-Simoan, Thales International, who earned 422 points out of a possible 445.

Reflecting input from IPC and its collaboration with Senator Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Section 862 of the bill calls on the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Executive Agent for Printed Circuit Board and Interconnect Technology (based at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana) and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to prepare a report to Congress by January 2019 on the health of the defense electronics industrial base.

If your company has e-textiles and/or stretchable technologies on its roadmap and you find yourself asking the question, “How can I merge smart fabrics with smart engineering?” IPC has developed a technical and business education workshop to answer these questions and more. IPC E-Textiles 2018 will take place on September 13, 2018 in Des Plaines, Ill., and will bring together innovators, technologists and engineers to collaborate, and identify partners and solutions to propel growth for the e-textiles market.

IPC's Validation Services Program is proud to announce Alternative Manufacturing Inc.’s (AMI) IPC J-STD-001 and IPC-A-610 Qualified Manufacturers Listing (QML) recertification. AMI is an electronics contract manufacturing company based in Winthrop, Maine and provides PCB assembly, wire harness production, and product assembly for a variety of industries. To earn recertification of the QML, AMI successfully completed an intensive audit based on two of IPC's foremost standards: IPC J-STD-001, Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies and IPC-A-610, Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies

IPC’s 2018 Annual Report on the North American PCB Industry, published this week, contains data showing the industry’s turnaround as it emerged in 2017 and how it affects different segments of the industry.

IPC announced today the April 2018 findings from its North American Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Statistical Program. Industry shipments and orders in April continued to grow but at a slowing pace. The book-to-bill ratio decreased but remained strong at 1.08.

IPC's Validation Services Program has awarded Ventec International Group, a global electronics materials manufacturing company headquartered in Suzhou, China, a second IPC-4101 Qualified Products Listing (QPL). Ventec successfully qualified their products, VT-90H and VT-901, to specification sheet 40 of IPC-4101E, Specification for Base Materials for Rigid and Multilayer Printed Boards

C-level executives from top electronics companies across the United States – all members of IPC – will gather in Washington, D.C. on May 21-23 for discussions with members of Congress and the Administration on issues that are critical to the future of the electronics industry and U.S. economy. IMPACT Washington, D.C. 2018 is IPC’s premier advocacy event, presenting members with the opportunity to conduct high-level meetings with their elected officials.