Carl Thompson, our production manager, is also our in-house IPC trainer — the person responsible for making sure our production team’s expertise doesn’t rely on outside courses or one-off certificates.

Carl has just qualified as a Certified IPC Trainer (CIT) in the Space and Military Applications Addendum to IPC J-STD-001, adding to his existing CIT status across IPC-A-610, IPC J-STD-001 and IPC-7711/7721. Between them, those standards cover acceptance criteria, soldering process control, and rework and repair, and Carl can now teach all of it, including the tougher requirements that apply to space and military hardware.

Why the addendum exists

Space and military electronics don’t get a second chance. Once a board is in orbit, or sealed inside a piece of defence equipment, there’s often no way to open it up and fix a fault.

So the Addendum doesn’t replace the core J-STD-001 standard — it builds on it, adding requirements around material control, contamination prevention, documentation and long-term reliability, all aimed at hardware that has to survive vibration and thermal cycling without failing in service.

The value of a trainer, not just a technician

Anyone can hold a certificate. A Trainer-level qualification is different. It means Carl can pass that standard on, consistently, to everyone on the production floor.

That’s deliberate. Rather than relying on one or two specialists, every member of our production team is certified as a CIS (Certified IPC Specialist) to Class 3 across these standards. Carl’s role is to keep that whole team current, without waiting on external course schedules or booking delays.

What it means for your project

For customers working in space, defence or other high-reliability sectors, this capability lets us get involved earlier. We can review drawings and specifications before manufacture starts, flag anywhere your requirements go beyond standard production criteria, and build that into the process from day one.

And for customers outside those sectors, the same discipline still applies. The standard of training that goes into hardware that can’t fail in space is the same standard we bring to every board that leaves our facility.

Interested in how our in-house IPC training and expertise could support your project? Email sales@electrica.co.uk or call 0161 343 7575.