Global Citizenship: What I’ve Learned About the American PCB Business
Global Sourcing Spotlight: The Best Products to Buy Offshore Through Global Sourcing
Nolan's Notes: The Rise (and Risk) of Data
These standards committee reports from IPC APEX EXPO 2016 have been compiled to help keep you up to date on IPC standards committee activities. This is the third in the series of reports.
Product Data
The 1-16 Printed Board Assembly Products Manufacturing Description Data and Transfer Methodology (IPC-2581) Task Group met to review the changes submitted for the amendment to the document that will be released later this year. The group was also able to celebrate the success of producing and testing 5 boards using only 2581 XML data as the data source. Additionally, the 2581 User’s Group met for the first time. The user’s group is a forum for the users of the 2581 standard to ask questions and share experiences on implementing the standard.
Shop Floor Communication
The 2-13 Shop Floor Communication Subcommittee brought together leading software developers, machine vendors, assembly equipment manufacturers and their customers to work on development of a new IPC standard to meet the current and future needs of industry that will fill a gap identified by the group. This new standard will provide uniformity of data protocols that will allow ease of machine to machine communication. The subcommittee will also provide an easy-to-understand definition of Industry 4.0 and its significance.
Supplier Declaration
The 2-18h Conflict Minerals Declaration Task Group discussed potential future changes and enhancements to IPC-1755, Conflict Minerals Data Exchange Standard. The committee discussed the use of special characters in smelter names and potential revisions to some of the declaration questions in order to improve clarity and usability. Following the meeting, a working draft of Amendment 2 was circulated. The committee is working toward publishing the amendment in 2017.
Environment, Health, and Safety
The 4-30 Environmental, Health and Safety Committee reviewed recent IPC regulatory activities including: TSCA reform, California Proposition 65, EPA’s Hazardous Waste Improvement Proposal, proposed changes in OSHA standards, expansion of WA State Dept. of Ecology Authority, and proposed China emission standards; European regulatory changes of interest including: impact of new REACH compliance obligations on suppliers, using EN 50581 to manage compliance with upcoming RoHS2 phthalate restrictions, and the Product Sustainability Round Table; and key sustainability issues in the electronics industry.
Conflict Minerals
The E-30 Committee reviewed potential revisions to the Conflict Minerals Due Diligence White paper.
