In 2003, IPC opened a European representative office in order to provide better, more timely service to the industry in Europe. The goal was also to establish a more active ear, to listen to our members and adjust programming to better meet their needs. The IPC European Representative is responsible for working closely with IPC distributors who sell IPC standards throughout Europe.
In 2009, IPC hired a representative in Russia to enhance the efforts already underway in Europe and address companies doing business in the Russian Language.
In 2016, IPC opened a new office in Brussels, Belgium. The office delivers the full suite of IPC products and services, including member support, standards development activities, educational opportunities, and more to all members in Europe.
Recent Events
IPC Day Design France
IPC Day Design France was hosted by WeNetwork, where the IPC Design Council France presented results of a 3-year study on the use of IPC standards to create highly reliable PCBs at the design stage.
IPC Day Design France
Organisé par IPC, PC2A et IFTEC, Le troisième IPC Day Design France s’est tenu mercredi dernier 9 septembre 2020 dans les locaux de WeNetwork à Angers. Le IPC Design Council France à présenté les résultats préliminaires de 3 années d‘activité de ses groupes de travail sur l’utilisation des standards IPC pour l’amélioration de la conception de PCB pour plus de qualité et de fiabilité des équipements.
This year’s competition board was designed by French supplier Polygone CAO in accordance with IPC-A-610H criteria. Featuring 116 components as small as 0402 and 0603, the board provided a significant challenge to contestants, resulting in only five of 26 competitors completing the assembly within the time allotted, and only three of those boards functioning to specifications. IPC-A-610 Master Instructors from TPT- Tallinn Polytechnic School, the IPC licensed master training center in Estonia, served as the competition judges.
On the winner’s podium for Estonia:
First place: Timmo Antso, Scanfil OÜ, with a board at 556 points of 558 possible points, produced in 54 minutes. He received a certificate from IPC, a cash prize of €300, and a present from sponsor Almit.
Second place: Ivo Ellik, Scanfil OÜ, with a board at 518 points of 558 possible points, produced in 60 minutes. He received a certificate from IPC, a cash prize of €200, and a present from sponsor Almit.
Third Place: Karin Andressoo, Enics eesti AS, with a board at 556 points out of 558 possible points, produced in 60 minutes. She received a certificate from IPC, a cash prize of €100, and a present from sponsor Almit.
New this year –IPC Award to the Best Company Team
IPC and its partner, the Estonian Electronics Industries Association, presented a new award, recognizing the best company team in hand soldering. Companies with two or three competitors were automatically entered in the best company competition. The best company award was determined by the best scores of the contestants from that company. This year, eight companies competed, with the top prize going to: Estonia Scanfil OÜ, with the combined score of 1,074 against a maximum possible score of 1,116, completed within the total combined time of 114 minutes (maximum time allowed 120 minutes).
Next Competitions in Europe
- Next Regional Competition in Europe will take place at productronica in Munich, Germany from November 16-19, 2021.
- The IPC Hand soldering Competition will return to Estonia again next year (dates and location to be determined)
For more information on European hand soldering competitions, contact Philippe Leonard, IPC Europe director at PhilippeLeonard@ipc.org.
IPC is very grateful to its Hand Soldering Competition sponsors for their constant support:
- Gold Sponsors: Hakko and Thalès
- Silver Sponsors: Almit GmbH, Optilia, TheDaylightCompany, SFM-Société Française de Microscopie and Polygone CAO
- Local Sponsors: The Estonian Electronics Industries Association, Instrutec and TPT- Tallinn Polytechnic School.
In cooperation with 2021 Global Industrie, IPC re-launched its popular Hand Soldering Competition, hosting skilled competitors on September 6-9, who demonstrated their expertise in hand soldering while competing for cash prizes. The first in-person trade show held in France since the onset of the COVID pandemic, Global Industrie welcomed 36 hand soldering experts representing 18 electronics companies.
This year’s competition board was designed by French supplier Polygone CAO in accordance with IPC-A-610H criteria. Featuring 116 components as small as 0402 and 0603, the board provided a significant challenge to contestants, resulting in only ten of 36 competitors completing the assembly within the time allotted, and only five of those boards functioning to specifications. IPC-A-610 Master Instructors from IFTEC, an IPC licensed master training center in France, served as competition judges.
On the winner’s podium for France this year:
- First place: Pauline Duval, Thalès Etrelles (former World Vice-Champion at the 2019 IPC World Championship), with a board at 552 points out of 558 possible points, produced in 60 minutes. She received a certificate from IPC, a cash prize of €300, a soldering station from sponsor Hakko, and a gift from sponsor Almit.
- Second place: Marina Bouvet, Thalès Etrelles, with a board at 550 points out of 558 possible points, produced in 56 minutes. She received a certificate from IPC, a cash prize of €200, and a gift from sponsor Almit.
- Third place: Manuela Anani, Dassault Aviation, with a board at 544 points out of 558 possible points, produced in 57 minutes. She received a certificate from IPC, a cash prize of €100, and a gift from sponsor Almit.
New this year – The IPC award to the best company team
IPC and its partner Les Cahiers de l’Industrie Electronique presented a new award, recognizing the best company team in hand soldering. Companies with two or three competitors were automatically entered in the best company competition. The best company award was determined by the best scores of the contestants from that company. This year, 11 companies competed, with the top prize going to: Thalès Etrelles, with the combined score of 1,102 against a maximum possible score of 1116, completed within the total combined time of 116 minutes (maximum time allowed 120 minutes).
Next competitions in Europe
- Next regional competition in Europe will take place at productronica in Munich, Germany from November 16-19,2021.
- Next competition in France will take place next year at Global Industrie scheduled for spring 2022 (dates to be confirmed) in Paris-Villepinte, France.
For more information on European hand soldering competitions, contact Philippe Leonard, IPC Europe director at PhilippeLeonard@ipc.org.
IPC thanks IPC Hand Soldering Competition sponsors for their generous support:
- Gold Sponsors: Hakko and Thalès.
- Silver Sponsors: Almit GmbH, Optilia, TheDaylightCompany, SFM-Société Française de Microscopie, and Polygone CAO
- Local Sponsors: IFTEC, SNESE and Global Industrie and Les Cahiers de l’Industrie Electronique.
24 June 2020
IPC is pleased to announce that the association has partnered with German-based in4ma to better support the standards, education and advocacy needs for the growing EMS industry in Europe.
Formed by Dieter G. Weiss in 2015, in4ma has been a leading market research and industry analysis consulting company supporting the 45 Billion Euro EMS industry.
Philippe Leonard, Senior Director of European Operations for IPC, stated:
“We have been closely following Dieter’s work for some time – he is a true champion for the industry. We are looking forward to working with him to develop programs to help our members become more financially successful.”
Mr. Weiss’ company became an IPC member earlier this year and he will be a regular contributor to the IPC Europe Local Update and the IPC Europe website.
“We are very fortunate to be working with Dieter,” said Sanjay Huprikar, VP of Solutions for IPC. “His incredible work in fostering meaningful and timely statistical analysis, market surveys and networking for the industry will be instrumental in helping us define new product offerings to help the EMS industry build electronics better.”
For more on in4ma and their work (including Dieter’s new reports on the impact of COVID-19 on EMS companies in Europe), please visit www.in4ma.de.
Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, UK, 19 September 2019 – Twenty hand soldering professionals from 12 British companies demonstrated their exceptional hand soldering abilities at the regional IPC Hand Soldering Competition held on 18–19 September at What’s New In Electronics (WNIE) in Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, UK. Competitors hand soldered a complex printed circuit board with 402 components to IPC-A-610G within a specified time limit.
First place winner, Justyna Mikolajczyk from Zettlex, completed her board in 50 minutes and 42 seconds, achieving 440 out of 445 possible points. As the new 2019 Champion for the UK, she received a a cash prize of 300 GBP, a soldering station from JBC, a soldering station from Hakko and a fully paid trip to participate in the IPC Hand Soldering World Championship at productronica this November in Munich.
Second place went to Phillip Smith from CIL, who completed his board in one hour, earning 421 out of 445 possible points. Smith, a former UK champion in hand soldering, received a cash prize of 200 GBP.
Third place went to Przemyslaw Marzalek, MSF Technologies, completing his board in 56 minutes, 30 seconds, earning 405 points. Przemyslaw was the UK Champion last year and competed for the world championship title in the World Championship held at IPC APEX EXPO in San Diego, California. He took home a cash prize of 100 GBP.
The IPC Hand Soldering Competition and World Championship will take place in Munich, 12-14, November, at productronica. The final competition of 2019 will be held on 12-13 November, with the World Championship taking place on Thursday, 14 November.
IPC thanks Gold Sponsors: JBC, Hakko and Thalès and Silver Sponsors: Optilia, The Daylight Company, NCAB, Almit, Electrolube, Zestron, and ART-Advance Rework Technology Ltd. (IPC Training Center in the UK).
We thank and congratulate all participants and their companies for their presence in this competition that showcases hand soldering as a critical skill for our industry. We hope to see you at upcoming competitions.
For photos from the competition, visit photo album: IPC HSC at WNIE.
Nuremberg, Germany, 11 May 2019 – From 7 to 11 May European IPC members and electronics industry professionals gathered in Germany to take part in European IPC committee meetings, share their technical expertise and have their voices heard during the development of IPC standards, training and certification programmes.
The following IPC committee meetings took place in Nuremberg at SMTconnect:
- Connected Factory Initiative Subcommittee (CFX)
- Cold Joining/Press-fit Task Group Meeting
- Materials and Substances Declaration for the Aerospace, Defense, HE and Other Industries
- Pb-Free Electronics Risk Management (PERM) Council Meeting
- IPC European Standards Steering Committee Meetings: IPC-A-610 comment resolution (Rev H), J-STD-001 comment resolution (Rev H), IPC/WHMA-A-620 comment resolution (Rev D) and IPC-6012 (IPC-A-600) comment resolution
- European Training Advisory Committee Meeting
The enthusiastic participation of attendees and their keen interest to advance the industry’s future in Europe served to significantly move forward the creation of new standards, reach consensus comments on draft standards and provide a local forum for idea exchange and networking.
As always, IPC committee meetings are open to all electronics industry professionals and are free of charge. Participation can take place in meetings, by teleconference or by e-mail. Learn more at the IPC Committee Home Page.