Standard of Excellence: Speed vs. Quality in Customer Service
Knocking Down the Bone Pile: Revamp Your Components with BGA Reballing
Global Sourcing Spotlight: Balancing Speed and Flexibility Without Sacrificing Control
IPC APEX EXPO 2019 to Demo Operating CFX Line
January 21, 2019 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamEstimated reading time: 7 minutes
A year on from their first demonstration, IPC’s Connected Factory Exchange (CFX) now nears the release of version 1.0 at this year’s upcoming IPC APEX EXPO. The I-Connect007 team spoke with CFX specialists Michael Ford and Dave Bergman about how far the program has come from the first initial public demo all the way through now becoming a published standard, and what users can expect from the demonstrations planned for the 2019 show.
Barry Matties: Gentlemen, can you please tell people about the CFX program at IPC APEX EXPO 2019—what should they know?
Dave Bergman: I am the current staff liaison for the CFX committee for IPC. Michael serves as a working chairman. We have three chairmen, but Michael is a vital industry volunteer. He is the glue for all the pieces, answering tons of questions, and giving presentations everywhere. He has a crucial role in this effort and works very hard on this, including staying up late to do interviews like this one. I am happy he is joining.
From IPC’s perspective and what we have going, I think it’s important to note that IPC-2591 CFX is marching forward continuously and getting nearer to publication. CFX is in a 30-day final draft for industry review cycle per our standardization rules. Then, it will be followed by a 30-day vote cycle where companies need to give a vote of approval—a thumbs up, thumbs down, or technical comments.
We’re doing this circulation slightly differently: IPC-2591 explains everything about CFX and provides examples and explanations. The nuts and bolts of CFX, which are the messages that machines both publish and consume, are on the open-source software development site called GitHub. We pushed both the standard and the GitHub link out a week or so ago to have people starting to look at. I am happy to announce that we are getting closer to the release of version 1.0 of CFX.
At the same time that we’re doing that, Michael and the committee decided we had to draw a line in the sand somewhere. We looked at this and said, “Does CFX have enough content that the industry can start implementing it and getting excited about it?” We drew the line in the sand and said, “Okay, this is enough for now. Let’s stop here, get this approved and published, and then we’ll turn our focus on additional messages.” At IPC APEX EXPO, we will start to discuss messaging for the 1.1 version of CFX, which will be part of the activity that takes place in San Diego this year.
In addition, we will highlight several things at IPC APEX EXPO 2019, including the collaboration between IPC and the HERMES Consortium. The HERMES standard should also be approved as an IPC standard IPC-9852 because that is undergoing a consensus vote very soon. The HERMES Consortium will also meet at IPC APEX EXPO 2019, so they will be talking about any potential upgrades for that standard format.
Then, the most exciting thing will be the show floor demonstration. We plan to have two manufacturing lines. We needed to go with two because there are more and more companies interested in showcasing their capability. We will have one manufacturing line, which is a combination of both the HERMES format, which will be IPC-9852, and CFX, which is IPC-2591. We’ll run messages in both of those standards and an assembly operation on the show floor.
We will have a second line, which will be all CFX. Some companies don’t do both formats. Some companies have said, “I can only have so many manufacturing pieces of equipment within the line.” So, the second line gives more companies the ability to participate outside of the combined HERMES/CFX line. I think people are going to get to see some very exciting activities. We’ve been building on this. We did the first CFX manufacturing line in Birmingham, England, in the U.K. in September. Then, we did one at the LEAP Expo with MMI in Shenzhen, China, in October. This will be the next step—adding in collaboration with HERMES—and then expanding from our virtual demonstrations when we have that at this year’s IPC APEX EXPO.
Page 1 of 2
Share on:
Testimonial
"Our marketing partnership with I-Connect007 is already delivering. Just a day after our press release went live, we received a direct inquiry about our updated products!"
Rachael Temple - AlltematedSuggested Items
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
10/31/2025 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007Last week, the IMPACT conference took place in Taipei, bringing together advanced packaging experts from around the globe to share their knowledge. We’ll be bringing you post-conference coverage over the next few weeks, so look for that in our newsletters, and in the Advanced Electronic Packaging Digest. Other news seemed to have the U.S. at the center of the global discussions. My picks start in Phoenix, where TSMC, NVIDIA, and Amkor are all scrambling to establish new capabilities. There’s nothing like a strong demand signal to cause build-out, and AI chips are doing exactly that.
I-Connect007 Welcomes New Columnist: Leo Lambert, EPTAC
10/30/2025 | I-Connect007I-Connect007 is excited to announce a column by Leo Lambert, an industry veteran with 40 years of experience, an award winner, and technical director at EPTAC. This column, Learning With Leo, will explore the evolution and related challenges of electronics product assembly, especially as it relates to training.
Better Sustainability Policies for Electronics
10/29/2025 | Diana Radovan, Global Electronics AssociationI joined the Global Electronics Association in August 2025 as the director of sustainability policy. Since then, much has happened in terms of geopolitics and in the development and re-envisioning of sustainability policies in the industry. While the European Commission has released several legislative packages to simplify sustainability requirements (“omnibus”), these developments haven’t yet settled and are not in effect. Given the many recent and ongoing public consultations, with often conflicting input from a broad range of stakeholders, final negotiations remain rather polarized among policymakers.
SMTAI 2025 Review: Reflecting on a Pragmatic and Forward-looking Industry
10/27/2025 | Marcy LaRont, I-Connect007Leaving the show floor on the final afternoon of SMTA International last week in Rosemont, Illinois, it was clear that the show remains a grounded, technically driven event that delivers a solid program, good networking, and an easy space to commune with industry colleagues and meet with customers.
Come Together: Tom Marktscheffel Used Data to Build CFX and a Global Factory Standard
10/27/2025 | Sandy Gentry, Community MagazineWhen Tom Marktscheffel, director of product management software solutions at ASMPT, looks back on his nearly three decades in electronics manufacturing, one word stands out: data. “Data is the new gold,” he says. Without it, automation, artificial intelligence, and the factory of the future are impossible. With it, the industry can move from manual, error-prone processes to smart, connected systems that make real-time decisions.