IPC and J-STD electronics assembly
IPC/WHMA-A-620 Essentials: Cable and Wire Harness Assemblies
Build and inspect harnesses that pass source inspection and survive the aircraft
Short course · 3 hours · Certificate does not expire
IPC/WHMA-A-620 is the standard aerospace and defense customers name when they buy cable and wire harness assemblies. It is the shared language between the drawing, the assembler, the inspector and the customer source inspector. This course teaches that language at the level a harness shop uses it every day: what the three product classes mean, how acceptable, process indicator and defect are decided, and why the drawing and the contract always come first.
You will work through the harness in build order. Wire preparation: stripping without damaging strands, when to tin and when tinning is forbidden, insulation damage and marking. Crimped terminations: the principle of the gas-tight crimp, tooling calibration and pull tests, conductor and insulation crimps, bellmouth and extrusion, contacts, insertion and retention. Soldered terminations and splices: cups, hooks, splice types, heat shrink and sealing, strain relief and stress loops. Harness assembly: routing, bend radius, lacing and tying, sleeving, labels, shielding, backshells and clamps. Testing and inspection: continuity and hipot, test records, common defects and causes, writing a nonconformance, first article and sampling, and what a source inspector checks.
The course is for assemblers, leads, inspectors, test technicians, quality staff and supplier quality engineers at aerospace, defense, medical and industrial electronics suppliers, and for anyone whose customer flow-downs ask for training on IPC/WHMA-A-620. It teaches the concepts and the reasoning in plain words. It does not reproduce the standard's criteria, tables or figures, and it is not an IPC certification; formal IPC certification is available only through IPC-licensed training centers.
The course closes with a 20-question examination drawn from a bank of 30. On passing you receive a PlanetISO Certificate of Completion with lifetime access to the course content. The certificate does not expire.
What people learn
- Explain the scope of IPC/WHMA-A-620, the three product classes and the acceptability categories, and state the order of precedence between contract, drawing and standard.
- Prepare wire for termination without strand or insulation damage, and state when tinning is required and when it is prohibited.
- Describe what makes a crimp reliable, the tooling, calibration and pull test controls that prove it, and the inspection points on a crimped contact.
- Recognise acceptable soldered terminations, splice types, heat shrink and sealing, and the strain relief that keeps joints alive under vibration.
- Apply routing, bend radius, bundling, sleeving, shielding and backshell principles to a harness build.
- Explain what continuity, dielectric withstand and insulation resistance tests prove and do not prove, and keep test records that trace to the drawing revision.
- Write a nonconformance that describes condition, requirement and containment, and prepare the evidence a customer source inspector will ask for.