PCB007 Magazine

PCB-Dec2015

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30 The PCB Magazine • December 2015 discussion but Bill suddenly said, "Hey, there is some legislation going on in China that's re- ally scaring us; can IPC look into this?" They wanted to get rid of cyanide gold plating, and I thought that sounded strange. After a few ques- tions, I verified that indeed, what he was say- ing was accurate. IPC has sister organizations in many other countries and we were able to use these relationships to impact this questionable legislation. In this case, in China, we reached out to the China Printed Circuits Association (CPCA) as one avenue to effecting change in Beijing. From North America, with the help of a co- alition that came from associations as well as multinational OEMs, IPC was able to change legislation in China. It was rather astounding. We don't have full-fledged active lobbyists in China, but because of the association connec- tion and working together, we were able to halt this legislation. We are continually advocating on behalf of our members. The fourth aspirational goal is industry so- lutions, which you've been involved in by way of round-robin programs over the years. Goldman: That's correct. Bergman: Round-robin test programs provided significant impact to IPC specifications over the years and we wanted to re-energize this activity. Our committees have been doing some test pro- grams on their own. The 'solutions' aspirational goal is intended to highlight that test programs and consortia type activity are important work to support industry standards. We are looking to involve the technical leaders in our member- ship to actively seek out and raise awareness of these opportunities. There may be opportuni- ties for IPC to pursue government funding for certain research projects depending on the na- ture of the program and the industry's active in- terest. IPC committee members will continue to play a key role in IPC's 'solutions' aspirational goal. Goldman: It seems as though applications and such are practically exploding, like in automotive and in military and medical industries. A whole lot is going on. rational goal—education. Once people under- stand the standards they want to train their people to them. We have developed training programs that were demanded by our members and the industry. "Get us a training program for A-610 or we will find someone who can" was the clear message we got in the '90s from the assembly industry. This grew up in the U.S. but has spread to many other regions. In new regions like India, for example, when companies realize that IPC services can help business, they start asking for more. One exam- ple was, "We're not finding that what you make is exactly what we want; we need something more basic for this marketplace. Can you de- velop something for us, for new employees that are coming off the streets?" We said, "Okay, we can come up with a one-day preparatory class." This can help the workers be more productive earlier than previously seen. At the request of the membership, we did some unique things in India and China to try to help the work needs there. When you are an industry association, you try to talk to the companies, listen to them, and explain the types of things that you do. We ask about their current challenges and learn what things we can do to help our industry. And while I am not actively involved in IPC's next aspirational goal—advocacy and government relations—you never know when there will be an opportunity to help make a connection where IPC can provide the support. One day got a call from Bill Beckenbaugh, who I had worked with when he was with Mo- torola for many years. I expected a technology IPC STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY VP TALKS INTERNATIONAL REACH, TECHNOLOGY, AND MORE FeATure inTerview " The ipC standards lead into our next aspirational goal— education. once people under- stand the standards they want to train their people to them. "

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