IPC rolls out new printed electronics management council committee

BANNOCKBURN, USA: IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries -- has announced the creation of a new IPC Printed Electronics Management Council Steering Committee that will oversee the development of educational programs to support the printed electronics industry. Industry veterans Don Banfield, president of Conductive Compounds, Inc., and Steve Tomas, director of flexible electronics for FLEXcon Company, have been elected chairman and vice chairman of the steering committee.

“IPC, because of its reach across many electronics industry segments and its historic acceptance of new industries, will give us the opportunity to expand printed electronics applications and bring this enabling technology to a broader market worldwide,” Banfield said.

The new steering committee is composed of industry leaders with representation of the printed electronics industry supply chain from raw materials (inks and coated/laminated films) suppliers to PCB manufacturers to manufacturers of functional printed products.

Along with Banfield and Tomas, members of the management council include: John Andresakis, Oak-Mitskui Inc.; Neil Bolding, MacDermid Autotype Inc.; Mike McDaniel, GM Nameplate; Edward Cook, ECI Screenprint Inc.; William Driscoll, 3M Industrial Adhesives & Tapes; Daniel Gamota, Printovate Technologies Inc.; Scott Gordon, DuPont Electronics and Communications; Rajesh Kumar, DDi Corp.; Richard Morris, Saxby Business Development LLC; David Sime, Soligie Inc.; and Jaye Tyler, Si-Cal Inc.

Tony Hilvers, IPC VP of industry programs, explained that the new management council will meet to continue its work in the development of new printed electronics programs in February at IPC APEX EXPO 2012 in San Diego. This event will also feature a dedicated printed electronics area on the show floor as well as a printed electronics track in the technical conference on February 29.

Earlier this year, IPC — an American National Standards Institute-accredited, nonprofit trade association — formed a Printed Electronics Steering Committee for Standards Development (D-60) and four printed electronics subcommittees to develop standards in the areas of design (D-61), base materials/substrates (D-62), functional materials (D-63) and final assembly (D-64). These technical committees recently met in Santa Clara, Calif.

Working drafts of the base materials/substrate standard (IPC-4921) and functional materials standard (IPC-4591) were reviewed during the very well-attended meetings. The standard development committees will meet again on Thursday, March 1, at IPC APEX EXPO to continue to work on the drafts of the standards.