Why is IPC-A-610H Certification Important for Your Workers? With Top 3 Classes of PCBAs
4 min read
Before moving any further, tell us that have you heard about a popular idiom – “If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing well?” If not, let us explain. It means when you do a particular task, you should strive hard to perform it as well as possible. So, if you are one of those manufacturers who produce electronic products with their potential circuit board, believing in this perspective makes sense. We are just trying to say that if you create a high-quality printed circuit board that is reliable and durable in the first attempt, you will get lesser defect-related complaints while offering higher customer satisfaction. But the issue is you can’t achieve this goal without enrolling your operators or technicians in the IPC-A-610H certification course.
Now the first question that might have crossed your mind is what IPC-A-610H certification is and what the benefits of pursuing it are, right? So, let’s sift through their answers now:
What is IPC-A-610?
The IPC-A-610 is a widely accepted technician training course based on the IPC standard “Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies.” Your employees can become IPC certified trainers in the electronic assembly field by participating in this training program. After that, they can impart their learning on topics like soldering, surface mounting, and jumper wire assembly criteria.
Who are the potential candidates for the IPC-A-610 certification program?
- Quality supervisors
- Engineering supervisors
- Manufacturing supervisors
These are the professionals who are likely to take care of the quality and reliability of electronic assemblies. So, suppose your workforce learns the tiny yet imperative details of electronic circuit boards. In that case, the overall quality of your PCBs will improve, and it will help your company stand apart from your competitors.
What is the IPC-A-610 course structure?
Just to let you know, the administrators have divided the IPC-A-610H certification course into two parts:
- Training course
- Certification examination
If some individuals feel that they don’t need to attend the training, they can take the challenge test, in that case, to become certified. Once your personnel have become certified trainers, they are now qualified to train application specialists about IPC-A-610 topics. Besides this, once your staff has completed this course, they will remain certified for only two years, and they must recertify themselves after that at an IPC authorized training centre.
Why pursuing IPC-A-610 is crucial for your in-house operators or engineers?
The first thing you need to understand here is that according to IPC, the IPC-A-610H is the most widely used acceptance standard for electronic assemblies in the electronics industry worldwide. Thus, if you buy its small standard book, you will find that it thoroughly demonstrates the quality of assembled circuit boards. Additionally, it contains essential requirements and guidelines that let PCBA manufacturers know that whether their production process meets the accepted quality levels or not.
What’s more, the IPC has facilitated compliance to accepted standards of electronic circuit boards by defining several IPC classifications with different acceptance criteria. Let’s see the IPC-A-610 PCBA classification levels now:
Class 1 – General Electronic Products
The most printed circuit board assemblies used in commercial electronic items fall under this category. Although manufacturers must ensure that the boards function well, PCBs are not mandatory to last long.
Class 2 – Dedicated Service Electronic Products
The PCBAs that fall in this category have to be highly reliable, have a longer lifespan, and offer uninterrupted service. Although if the PCB fails to meet the expected standard, it should not cause harm to anyone’s health or safety.
Class 3 – High-Reliability Electronic Products
The circuit boards under this category should be excellent ones that can operate on demand and offer continuous operation over the product’s lifecycle. Do you know why? Because if invasion medical devices fail to perform to their best level, it could result in dangerous incidents.
Now that you know three classes of IPC-A-610 PCBAs, it’s time to move onto the next topic
What your operators or technicians will learn by checking out the IPC-A-610 standard?
The good news about the IPC-A-610 standard is that it offers in-depth information about PCBAs. Additionally, it provides lots of visual materials to facilitate the board inspection task for industry compliance. Just so that you know, their particular focus areas cover a wide range of elements such as wiring, terminals, connectors, insulations, and other aspects of the soldering process like through-hole components and surface mount devices. Take note that soldering criteria is not just part of the IPC-A-610 standard. It is also the centre of attention in IPC-J-STD-001H, i.e., Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies.
Final words
We hope you now know why IPC-A-610 certification is vital for your engineers or supervisors. Aside from that, you also learned three main classes of PCBAs in this content. So, if you want to train and certify your concerned professionals in the PCB assembly, choosing the best electronics training centre in Illinois is instrumental.
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