BY: CHRISTINE SIEBERT
As the weather gets colder, holidays are getting closer and they will come and go, what do we have to look forward to? The 2020 WHMA Annual Wire Harness Conference, of course!! As always, WHMA/IPC does not disappoint on location. This year our conference is being held in sunny Las Vegas! I don’t know about you but with the chill starting in the air, I’ve already signed up and am excited and ready to go.
Now, of course, it’s not just about location. This year the WHMA conference committee has put together another great conference lineup. The 2020 WHMA Annual Wire Harness Conference is being held on February 18-20, 2020 at the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa. If you’ve never been to a WHMA Conference, this conference has become one of the few investments that give their attendees an opportunity to learn, grow, share and discover new approaches to many aspects of the wire harness industry. The conference features presentations on topics important to wire harness manufacturers, OEM’s and suppliers.
This year’s conference keynote presenter will be B. Gentry Lee with his presentation titled “A Passion for Space Exporation”. Buchholz is chief engineer for the Solar System Exploration Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and successful science fiction writer. During his keynote presentation, Lee will talk about the highlights of his exploration career and touch on the role of wires and harnesses on the most memorable spacecraft.
Responsible for the engineering integrity of all robotic planetary missions managed by JPL for NASA, Lee provided engineering oversight for the Curiosity rover mission to Mars in 2012, the Dawn mission to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, the Juno mission to Jupiter and the GRAIL missions to the Moon. Previously, Lee provided oversight and guidance for the engineering aspects of the Phoenix and twin rover missions to Mars, as well as NASA’s successful Deep Impact and Stardust missions.
Other presentations and topics to be covered at the conference:
- “Wire Harness Industry Economics – Managing in an Uncertain Economy” presented by Taylor St. Germain
- “Space Challenges from Wire Harness” presented by Robert WM. Cooke
- “Megatrends of CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electrification)”
New this year, WHMA is holding a Technical Education Workshop – The Evolution of IPC’s Cable & Wire Harness Documents: IPC-D-620, IPC/WHMA-A-620 and IPC-HDBK-62 presented by Robert Cooke. This presentation will be a detailed, but often light-hearted and realistic, discussion on how the IPC’s cable and harness assembly documents were created – from the submission of comments and technical content covering acceptance requirements for cable and wire harness assemblies to be included in the IPC-A-610 “Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies” document; into the IPC/WHMA-A-620 “Requirements and Acceptance for Cable and Wire Harness Assemblies” document; the Space Addendum IPC/WHMA-A-620x-S – Space Applications Electronic Hardware Addendum to IPC/WHMA-A-620”; and then evolved to include companion documents covering design IPC-D-620 “Design and Critical Process Requirements for Cable and Wiring Harnesses”, the handbook IPC-HDBK-620 “Handbook And Guide To IPC-D-620 and IPC/WHMA-A-620”, and separate design and acceptance documents for optical fiber, optical cable, and hybrid wiring harness assemblies.
This course will also include:
- How can the documents be used – and what does the acceptance code mean?
- Why are there separate design, acceptance, and handbooks – and how they work together?
- When will there be new revisions?
- What does a handbook do / not do?
- “Hot” topics that are included in the documents
Of course, it would not be a WHMA Conference without a lot of networking and fun. The infamous golf outing this year will be held at the Tournament Players Course Las Vegas (TPC LV). View the latest innovations from the top suppliers to the industry in the vibrant exhibit hall and four hours of best practice roundtables. This is one event you do not want to miss!
Continue to check out the latest conference news and register for the event, please visit https://annualconference.whma.org/.
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