BANNOCKBURN, IL – IPC will begin development of a data exchange standard to help the electronics manufacturing industry comply with forthcoming US Securities and Exchange Commission regulations on conflict minerals.

The standard will build on the due diligence communication tool recently released by the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition and Global e-Sustainability Initiative, and use the sophistication of an XML schema incorporated in the IPC-175x family of IPC standards.

Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, any publicly traded company will be burdened with preparing and submitting detailed reports to the SEC if its products contain tin, tantalum, gold, or tungsten that cannot be proven to be conflict-free.

IPC will seek input at its annual IPC Midwest conference in September in the Chicago suburbs.