IPC, the Association Connecting Electronics Industries® once again presented its very popular Hand Soldering Competition in cooperation with productronica 2017. The competition was held at productronica, with the regional competition taking place from November 14 to 16, followed by the World Championship on the 17th November.

Sixteen competitors participated in the world championship and represented their companies and countries, including France, China, Hungary, Germany, Korea, India, Poland, Malaysia, Thailand, Russia, Vietnam and the United Kingdom. The competition was fierce as competitors vied for the coveted title of IPC Hand Soldering World Champion and the grand prize of €1000.

Zhang Yi from China’s Chengdu #10 institute took the title off hand soldering champion with a score of 473 out of a possible 500. The runner-up was Vu Thi Xuan from Vietnam’s 2 UMC, with a score of 458, while Hasrol Mizom Hosson from Malaysia took third place.

Kris Roberson, IPC director of certification noted that the world championship hand soldering competition requires competitors to focus on a very complex board using their best skills. Some measure of the complexity of the board design is indicated by the fact that only 6 of the 16 competitors completed a functional board. Roberson added that although competitors usually have 60 minutes to complete the board, the time limit for the championship round was set at 75 minutes.

Three criteria were used by the judges:

  1. Overall electrical functionality of the assembly
  2. The speed at which the assembly was produced
  3. Soldering in accordance with the criteria of IPC-A- 610F Class 3

The judges were all IPC-A- 610 Master Instructors from master training centers licensed by IPC and hailed from Estonia, China, Holland, France and America.

David Bergman from IPC explained that this is the first time that the championship was held at productronica, and noted that the best hand soldering talent from across the globe competed.

Although the competition was extremely tough, each competitor gave their best. Bergman added that IPC looks forward to 2018 when they plan on hosting hand soldering competitions across the world. Bergman is the vice president of standards and training at IPC.

IPC thanks the following Hand Soldering Competition Sponsors for their support:

  • Gold Sponsors:
    • Weller
    • Kurtz Ersa
    • JBC Tools
  • Silver Sponsors:
    • NCAB Group
    • Balver Zinn GmbH
    • Almit GmbH
  • Bronze Sponsors:
    • Weidinger
    • ULT
    • PIEK International Education Centre
    • Optilia
    • MicroCare
    • LICO
    • IFTEC
  • Contributor Sponsors:
    • RONDO
    • Microsolder

Visit www.ipc.org/events to learn more about IPC events.