Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1355791
126 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2021 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE But, for them, I was a freshman, and I saw this very little smile in their faces when I was pre- senting. And I felt like, "Oh, they all know what I'm talking about. I don't tell them anything new." But when I arrived at the APEX EXPO one year later all of them recognized me and all of them talked to me. And there was a very, very open-minded communication and I felt really accepted right away. at is something which is quite unique and that is what I would consider the special environment that IPC has. I was impressed by its open-minded and warm welcome of new members and new arrivals. Goldman: Yes, IPC and volunteers love new volunteers. Worker bees, as we call them. Tranitz: Agreed. Aer that time, a few years later, I proposed to IPC to start a press-fit standard for the automotive industry and high reliability applications because the current standards that existed were basically coming from the former telecommunications industry. So simply, cold-joining technology is where a compliant zone of a connector or housing pin is pressed-in to a specific plated through-hole of a printed board. is joint can withstand very tough environmental conditions beyond those usually known for solder joints as long as the overall design is matching. And particularly from the reliability perspective, this is what we needed more in the automotive industry, and that's why we made this proposal. A year later my other co-chair, Udo Welzel, and myself got the request from IPC to write a PIN (project initiation request). From this moment onward, we were a very produc- tive working team. Aer three years we were already in the ballot phase, and in May 2020 finally the standard has been published. I think we have been quite fast considering we started the standard absolutely from scratch. Goldman: at's great to hear. When you volun- teer for something at IPC, they never turn you down, wouldn't you say? Tranitz: Yes. We needed the international stan- dard for high reliability applications and IPC is a well-approved homeland for all kinds of elec- tronic manufacturing standards, and therefore it was a win-win situation in my opinion. Goldman: Have you been at most of the IPC meetings since then? Tranitz: I have been at all APEX EXPOs at least, and at the one or other intermediate meetings in Chicago and Munich in the high phase of the standard. I also presented one time at an auto- motive reliability forum in Nuremberg, Ger- many back in 2017, I believe it was. Goldman: at's great. So, the committee that you chair is press fit; are you involved with any other committees? Tranitz: ere is the 5-21M Cold Joining Press- fit Task Group—the standard is IPC-9797— and the 5-21N Cold Joining Press-Fit Hand- book Task Group. I am also from time to time working on the J-STD-001 committee and the A-610 automotive addendum depending on the topic. On top of this, I'm becoming active a little more in the IPC European Standards Steering Committee. Goldman: Sounds good. Now, part of this fel- lowship award is a scholarship to the university or other school of your choice. Tell us about your choice.