Aug 22, 2011 
Group seeks industry input on conflict minerals reporting and other data exchange issues at IPC Midwest meetings
In an era of intense scrutiny over “what” materials are used in electronic products and “from where” those materials originate, Krista Crotty, founder of Alberi EcoTech, and Jørgen Vos, product management director at PTC, have accepted the co-leadership roles of IPC’s 2-18 Supplier Declaration Subcommittee. Charged with the development and oversight of the 175x family of data exchange standards, such as IPC-1752A, Materials Declaration Management, the subcommittee helps the global electronics industry better manage the growing reporting requirements of the world’s evolving environmental regulations as well as new corporate social responsibility requirements, such as conflict minerals reporting.
“The IPC data exchange standards and specifically the XML schema, which is the building block of all IPC’s data exchange standards, provide a tremendous benefit to the industry … and I am excited to work with others from the industry on these projects,” says Crotty. The IPC-175x family of IPC standards incorporates a sophisticated XML schema that facilitates and eases material declaration data exchange between companies in the multifarious global electronic interconnect supply chain.
Crotty and Vos’ combined expertise will be a tremendous asset to the subcommittee as it embarks on a full plate of activities scheduled for the group’s upcoming meetings on Monday, September 19 and Thursday, September 22, 2011, in conjunction with IPC Midwest Conference & Exhibition. One of their first orders of business: tackling the addition of a conflict minerals query to the IPC-175x family of standards.
“Tracking regulations from RoHS to REACH to WEEE etc., and now as part of the conflict minerals regulations stemming from Dodd-Frank, the tasks of material declaration have become extremely complex, but the beauty of the XML schema ensures we are all talking the same language, and that we have clear expectations,” explains Vos. “I’m excited to be able to share my XML knowledge with the group,” he says, adding that he hopes others in the software industry and electronics supply chain will join the group’s efforts. As an ANSI-accredited standards development organization, IPC committees continually seek input from all stakeholder groups to ensure broad and fair representation of all perspectives in the development of IPC standards.
IPC’s 2-18 Supplier Declaration Subcommittee will meet in person during IPC Midwest. To attend these and/or other IPC standards development meetings, individuals must register for IPC Midwest at www.IPCMidwestShow.org/register. IPC Midwest Conference & Exhibition will be held at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center, Schaumburg, Ill. For more information on IPC Midwest, including the free exhibition of top suppliers in electronics manufacturing, visit www.IPCMidwestShow.org.
For more information on the activities of the IPC 2-18 Supplier Declaration Subcommittee, contact Stephanie Castorina, IPC manager of environmental programs, at StephanieCastorina@ipc.org or +1 703-522-0317.
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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