IPC Hand Soldering Competition Winner Crowned at ELECTROSUB 2019

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In conjunction with ELECTROSUB 2019, Microsolder and IPC conducted the second regional European qualification for the IPC Hand Soldering Competition in Budapest, Hungary on April 3-5, 2019. The competition in Budapest drew 33 professional hand soldering competitors for the coveted hand soldering regional competition crown. In addition to this year’s professional competition, 34 beginners from local high schools competed for first, second and third place cash prizes over the three-day period.

This year, the first and third place winners came from the same company Elektromont Kft. The first-place winner, Istvan Bidlek won a cash prize of 96000 Hungarian Forint and the opportunity to compete at the IPC World Hand Soldering Championship in November 2019, located at productronica in Munich, Germany. Coming in second place was Adam Istvan, from Eurocircuits Kft. Who received a cash prize of 64000 Hungarian Forint. The third-place winner, Imre Papp took home a cash prize of 32000 Hungarian Forint for his strong efforts.

IPC’s local training center partner Microsolder helped to organize the hand soldering competition and provided the independent judges for the competition. The competitors were evaluated on completing a finished assembly, based on workmanship, overall functionality, compliance with IPC-A-610 Class 3 criteria and speed, with a 60-minute time limit.

Thirty-four competitors participated in the student hand soldering competition. Varga Balazs, took first place and received a cash prize of 10000 Hungarian Forint. In second place, Toszegi Mate received a cash prize of 7000 Hungarian Forint.  Balazs Markus took third place with a cash prize of price of 4000 Hungarian Forint.

“The best-of-the-best hand soldering talent in Hungary came to compete at ELECTROSUB 2019,” said David Bergman, IPC vice president of standards and technology. “The competition was tough, but each competitor rose to the challenge. We look forward to hosting more hand soldering competitions across the globe.” Bergman added, “IPC would like to thank hand soldering competition gold sponsors: JBC, HAKKO, and Thales; silver sponsors: Optilia, The Daylight Company, Almit, Zestron et NCAB, Microsolder; for their support.”

IPC is planning additional regional hand soldering competitions in Europe. Watch for announcements from IPC with locations and times and on IPC’s Hand Soldering Competition web page. For more information on IPC events, visit www.ipc.org/events.