Aug 29, 2012 Sixteen competitors showed off their hand soldering skills during an action-packed competition at IPC Midwest Conference & Exhibition last week. Second place went to Alyssia Demetropoulos of Pro-Active Engineering (Sun Prairie, Wis.) and the third-place winner was Sue Fischer of Plexus (Appleton, Wis.). In the end, Brian Wade, senior technician at CAMtek (Bloomington, Ill.) and certified IPC trainer (CIT), clinched first place in IPC Midwest’s second annual hand soldering competition.
Judging the competition, Gregg Owens, Space Exploration Technologies; Floyd Bertagnolli, STM; and Robert Fornefeld, L-3 Communications, awarded points based on soldering in accordance with IPC-A-610E Class 3 criteria, the speed at which the assembly was produced and the overall functionality of the assembly.
As the winner, Wade took home a $500 grand prize from IPC and a WSJ 100 soldering station compliments of PACE Worldwide. In addition, Wade will receive complimentary hotel and airfare to IPC APEX EXPO® 2013 in San Diego where he will compete in the IPC Grand Championship against winners from IPC competitions around world.
“We are all very proud of Brian’s first-place win at the IPC Midwest hand soldering competition,” said Christine Davis, president of CAMtek, Inc. “This is an awesome achievement, and we look forward to supporting him at the international competition in February.”
Sponsored by PACE Worldwide and supported by Cobar Solder Products Inc. and Senju Metal Industry Co., the hand soldering competition was part of IPC Midwest Conference & Exhibition, August 22–23 in Schaumburg, Ill. Held annually, IPC Midwest provides the printed board and electronics assembly industries with a focused, regional venue to exhibit and see new technologies, participate in standards development, network and build technical knowledge.
More information on the upcoming IPC Grand Championship at IPC APEX EXPO 2013 will be available soon at www.IPCAPEXEXPO.org/soldering.
IPC (www.IPC.org) is a global industry association based in Bannockburn, Ill., dedicated to the competitive excellence and financial success of its 3,100 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 $2.02 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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