Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1161956
52 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2019 count up the volunteers that are on IPC com- mittees globally, there are about 2,800 active participants. And in China, we've had continued growth. Companies have been more actively engaged in global standards efforts, and I have been spending time encouraging local participation. We have six standards that were brought up by, approved, and are being actively led by IPC member companies in China. And that runs anywhere from the corporate social responsi- bility where they already published to active standards currently under consideration for high-speed rail. There are some fascinating and exciting standards being actively worked on by our members in China. It has been IPC's goal to be a global stan- dards organization. It doesn't matter to me one bit where standards are developed, only that we have a global consensus when they're fin- ished. Most of our standards, because of our committee structure in history, have been U.S.- initiated, but that's changing as we've grown in other areas and have continued to encour- age and cultivate standards development in other areas. Johnson: It's interesting to imagine how wir- ing harness standards connect up with tech- nologies like e-textiles. Some of these prod- ucts start to touch each other developing into a larger, system-based environment. Bergman: Right. I attended the last WHMA meeting and met an exhibitor. I asked what his company did, and he said, "We make fine wires, and we're looking for applications for these fine wires." I asked if he would look into our e-textiles efforts, so we matched him up with a couple of the committee activities. There are technologies and standards activities that complement each other. Johnson: CFX is not only a powerful standard for our industry at this time, but its develop- ment and release was particularly fast com- pared to what people typically think with respect to standards. It made a great case for companies collaborating rather than protecting in an otherwise competitive environment. Do you see more of that going on with standards? Bergman: As fast as it was, it took longer than anticipated because we had some early mis- steps. The process could have been faster, but we encountered a dead end and had to redi- rect. We also spent a lot of time debating the right solution and future-proofing the solution. CFX is not Industry 4.0, but it is the foun- dation of Industry 4.0. Once you know your machines can all speak the same language, then the magic can happen. What can your AOI solder paste inspection machine commu- nicate back to your solder paste printer? What can then be changed based on what feedback it's getting? You have to be able to pass the messages if you're trying to connect machines from different suppliers. That's simply where the marketplace had to go. At first, I never expected the equipment manufacturers would have such a high level of interest in collaborating, but that's what the customer wants. The customer has stated pretty clearly that they want a line that can be made from different vendors' machines, and they'd like it to be plug-and-play. So, that's the message that was delivered. When we had our meeting in Las Vegas, I walked into a cramped meeting room, and everybody was in business suits. I saw the chairman of IPC's board along with senior management from about 80% of the equip- It has been IPC's goal to be a global standards organization. It doesn't matter to me one bit where standards are developed, only that we have a global consensus when they're finished.