Industry Collaboration resounding theme in strengthening national defense and North American PCB Market

Can the North American PCB industry meet the needs of the DoD? For industry leaders attending IPC's recent Technology Interchange in Washington, D.C., the answer was a resounding "yes."

Throughout the two-day event which featured speakers from all segments of the industry as well as the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the message was clear - strong collaboration is needed between the North American PCB industry, the DoD and the newly created PCB Executive Agent in order to strengthen national defense readiness and the North American PCB market.

Focusing on the leading-edge technologies that the DoD will require in coming years, IPC's Technology Interchange took a hard look at the actions required for the North American PCB industry to support future DoD needs. An important part of that was the unveiling of IPC Printed Board Defense Roadmap, a critical tool to assist PCB manufacturers, OEMs, and the DoD to better communicate future defense electronics needs. Created with input from top military OEMs and leading North American PCB manufacturers, the IPC Defense Roadmap is a living document that identifies the North American printed board industry's future technologies and capabilities for defense electronics.

"Bringing together all parts of the supply chain to talk about issues concerning military and technology roadmaps is a great thing," said Mikel Williams, president and CEO of DDi Corp. "We were able to address common issues regarding supplying product to the defense and aerospace industries."

Williams adds, "I believe we ignited some interest and momentum here in regard to pursuing a public policy focused on securing our nation's defense and also job creation. We will need to follow up this event with active participation at the IPC's Capitol Hill Day to encourage our public officials to support our industry and help ensure the long-term supply chain supporting our national defense."

The IPC Defense Roadmap is intended to be representative of the industry. In an effort to seek greater collaboration on the IPC Defense Roadmap from all industry segments, IPC has initiated a Wiki site that enables IPC members, participants from the Technology Interchange and nonmembers who purchase the roadmap to provide input, suggest edits and share their own military electronics technology capabilities.

IPC members may download the IPC Defense Roadmap for free at www.ipc.org/MembersOnly/TechnicalResources.aspx.  Nonmembers may purchase the document through IPC's Online Bookstore at www.ipc.org/onlinestore.  

For more information on IPC Printed Board Defense Roadmap, visit www.ipc.org/defense-roadmap.  For more information on the IPC's Wiki site for industry comment, contact Ron Chamrin, IPC manager of government relations, at RonChamrin@ipc.org  or +1 703-522-0225.

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