Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1518339
54 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2024 a functioning harness. Peo- ple can be unaware of the level of controls that go into what's between point A and point B to make it work. When it comes time, you put all the electronics, circuit boards, buttons, and panels together into an enclosure and connect them with the wiring harness. What do assemblers need to know when the wiring harnesses come into their facility? You have a lot of layers of process control and inspection. Maybe you're not used to require- ments in such detail, but suddenly, you have more parts with pre-existing manufacturing standards, and they must be revalidated. It matters a lot more. My background is in aero- space and defense, and we are required to check things more oen. Standards are structured for box builds slightly different than harnesses. Require- ments are more clearly defined for harnesses because it's a more mature standard. You will need to translate that level of process control and dedication from inspection through to the box build. Even though it doesn't necessarily have all the same controls today, we're work- ing on getting there and making some reason- able steps in the right direction. I take it that there are IPC standards for wiring harnesses and box build? For cable and harness assembly, the standard is IPC/WHMA-A-620. A new revision of A-620 came out in October 2022. We also have the 620S Space addendum, which exceeds Class 3 high-reliability criteria, IPC-D-620 for the design, and IPC-HDBK-620. We have IPC-A- 630 and IPC-HDBK-630 for box build. A-630 has been undergoing a massive revision over the past six years and is slated to come out later this year, which I'm excited about. We're updating the manufacturing and inspection requirements to the same level that we have already built into A-620. What will assembly providers find in these standards to help them understand how to ramp up a box-build business? For IPC-A-630, specifically for box build, it now has more content in terms of process. It specifies more of the internal manufacturing steps instead of just saying, "is is accept- able" or "is is a defect." It addresses topics like, "When inspecting painting, you should be looking at these types of things, and these con- siderations depend on what features it's deliv- ering." e design will always take precedence, but if your design doesn't give specifics, here are the defaults. We're adding about 100 pages of detail in the revision. I'm sensing these standards are for an EMS company to influence their incoming inspection? e EMS company will get wiring harnesses that presumably were built to those standards before being shipped. Still, they'll be inspected at the EMS company to ensure that everything incoming is of appropriate quality. Because these processes are inherently operator-based, effort at the wiring harness supplier goes into ensuring you make the exact same thing every single time—you want to have more than just the one employee who's been doing this for 20 years. You need repeatability controls, which may increase cost. I've worked with suppliers that haven't used A-620—or other industry standards, for that matter. ey're just doing their own thing, making the product and sending it out. en a company like us comes along, and says, "We have requirements, and you must follow them to do business with us." It's a significant shi in Christina Rutherford