Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1520492
96 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2024 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE Taking Standards and Industry Into a Future Age by Chris Jorgensen • IPC IPC APEX EXPO 2024 proved to be another busy week in the world of IPC Factory of the Future standards development. It would be near impossible to cover every last nook and cranny of important discussions, outcomes, and future-looking plans that occurred dur- ing our Factory of the Future standards com- mittee meetings, but we will do our best to provide a textual highlight reel for the week. All the standards activities mentioned here are open for involvement by anyone. There is no IPC membership required or cost to participate. Our committees and A-Teams are simply looking for like-minded people who will roll up their sleeves and work with col- leagues from around the world to advance these standards. Click here to sign up. A Hermes Group is Born APEX EXPO was host to the first-ever meet- ing of the IPC Hermes Standard Task Group. That's right, we now have a task group for closer collaboration with The Hermes Stan- dard Initiative members on the ongoing development of IPC-HERMES-9852, The Global Standard for Machine-to-Machine Communication in SMT Assembly. The Hermes Standard Initiative and IPC formed this task group to give Hermes users on their shop floors a seat at the table and a voice in the ongoing development of the standard. This is an important step forward as Hermes utilization increases, especially in facilities that also utilize IPC-CFX. During the meeting, attendees learned that IPC-HERMES-9852, Version 1.6 had recently