How to Conduct Effective IPC Certification Courses for CIT/CIS?

There are several elements which are important for conducting an effective IPC certification class in order to be credentialed as a CIT (trainer) or a CIS (associate):

· Experienced instructor in the subject matter at hand
· Experienced instructor in using the IPC training portal
· Experienced instructor in the standard where the credential is being sought
· Professional equipment which will lead in general to better training outcomes

The use of an experienced instructor in the subject matter at hand is one of the requirements in conducting an effective IPC certification course. In order to conduct an effective IPC J-STD-001 certification course, whether it is at the CIT or CIS level, the instructor should be a subject matter expert in electronics assembly. This means the instructor should have worked in the electronics assembly, electronics manufacturing or hand soldering and assembly areas for some of their professional career. This knowledge, background and experience level allows the instructor to relate to the students. In addition, because this particular IPC certification class requires the student to have the outcome of having to be able to demonstrate soldering skills, the instructor needs to have soldering abilities and knowledge. This includes the ability to perform and demonstrate the proper hand soldering techniques while at the same time demonstrating that to students. It also includes the instructor’s ability to inspect solder joints so that they can review and comment on the hand soldering work that the student demonstrates on their sample board. If instructing per the IPC 7711/21 PCB rework and repair standards document the instructor will have to all of the skills as mentioned above albeit at an advanced level. This requires excellent hand-eye coordination on part of the instructor on order to pull this off. In order to be an effective instructor in the IPC-A-610 knowledge of manufacturing processes and the ability to teach various inspection techniques and methods including but not limited to lighting methods, the use of magnification aids and others. In order to be effective in certification training for the discrimination skills as found in the IPC-A-610. In terms of the discrimination skills certification as found in IPC-A-600 additional skills in PCB fab should be part of being an effective instructor. With respect to IPC-A-620, the instructor should also have a background in wire harness and cable assembly when instructing on how to discriminate the condition of a wire harness or cable assembly. 

Another skill that the instructor should have in order to conduct an effective IPC certification class is to make sure that the instructor is well-versed in the IPC training portal and the hierarchy of IPC standards. With the advent of online testing and the various IPC certification prerequisites, the complication of certification program has made the IPC trainer who does quite a bit of training invaluable. In addition, when something goes awry in testing or instruction the experienced IPC trainer can navigate through the IPC training hierarchy to find solutions to problems in order to make the class instruction as compact and effective as possible.

Another instructor credential for effective IPC certification training is to make sure that the instructor is well-versed in the standard that they are providing the instruction in. If an instructor has sat in the development of the given standard they can illustrate the thinking behind the given section that is being taught.

Finally, in order to make for an effective IPC certification instruction, the instructor should have all the correct tools at hand. If the certification training is the IPC-J-STD-001 the instructor needs to have all of the proper soldering equipment, magnification aids and soldering materials available for instruction in hand soldering. If the IPC 7721 repair process is being demonstrated the student, as well as the instructor, should have the proper repair materials available for the students in order to have an effective instruction. When the instructor is holding discrimination skills based IPC certification class such as the IPC-A-610, IPC-A-620 or IPC-A-600, the instructor should have the ability to project any magnification aids in order to illustrate a given point.

All of these elements as described above make for a more effective IPC certification experience.

IPC J-STD-001 Revision “H” Updates and Changes

There were some edits, changes, and clarifications in going from “F” to “G” in the IPC-J-STD-001.

As a reminder, the IPC J-STD-001 Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies is the “how to build it” document” for electronics assembly manufacturing. This standard continues to spell out methods, materials and verification data methods for producing quality soldered interconnections to meet a variety of end-user environments. The IPC-J-STD-001 Revision G still focuses in on process control while setting industry-consensus requirements for a broad range of electronic products.

There were some changes in the standards with respect to the wires and terminals section. Pinholes, dewetting and other soldering defects for tinning a wire. There was also some clarification on how wires can or cannot wrap around one another.

In the surface mount section, there were some changes in the new J-STD-001 Revision “G”. There were some clarifications on the circular mounted components such as MELFs in terms of solder touching the component body. There was also a clarification on the solder terminations on various components. In section 10 there was a newly written section that was broken out on how SMT components are to be staked.

Overall there were some fairly minor changes in the document in expectation of a major change on cleanliness testing for process control. This will be handled and voted on as an amendment to the document due out sometime in the next 12-18 months. This effort is being led by a sub-committee.

The changes in the standards in moving form IPC-J-STD-001 “F” to version “G” were fully discussed in a webinar here:

This was presented by James Barnhart IPC-JSTD-001 an IPC Master Instructor.

There are several tools needed to perform the training for the IPC-J-STD-001. One of them is the solder training kit which can be purchased from here. The IPC J-STD-001 revision G can also be purchased from here. Both of these tools are required one per student. The standard can be used over and over again while the soldering kit is used one time per student. The soldering can be done using lead-free solder or a combination of both lead-free and lead-based solder.

In terms of timing the IPC-JSTD-001 G certification training is completed in from 1-5 days with the first days’ material being mandatory and the remainder-SMT, through-hole, wires and terminals and inspection all being “optional”. In the certification training for the instructor level for the IPC-J-STD-001 training program, the entire standard is covered over a period of (5) days. Here is a brief rundown of all of the materials covered in the IPC J-STD-001 training program for trainers:

Use of statistical process controls methods including control charting and upper and lower control limits and confidence intervals

Where to find the various test methods and how they are used as they are related to the IPC-J-STD-001 standard

• Acceptance criteria for visual inspection of solder joints
• Demonstration on SMT assembly techniques
• Demonstration of through-hole assembly techniques
• General requirements in electronics assembly including ESD, MSD, lighting and magnification requirements
• Wire and wire terminal assembly techniques
• Program requirements while being an IPC certified trainer for the IPC-J-STD-001 G program.