ATLANTA, GA – UP Media Group, publisher of CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY, today announced the opening of the Jim D. Raby Hall of Fame for Electronics Assembly.

Jim Raby is synonymous with soldering and high reliability printed circuit assemblies. He has spent his entire 55-year career in electronics manufacturing, starting with the Saturn/Apollo rocket program. He is credited for developing the NASA and Navy (the famous China Lake) soldering schools, and was instrumental in developing the IPC soldering certification curriculum, used by the vast majority of the industry today. He initiated the Electronics Manufacturing Productivity Facility (now known as the American Competitiveness Institute). All in all, he has trained tens of thousands of engineers and operators.

"Jim Raby is as responsible as anyone for today's soldering practices and standards, and he is likely the most influential person alive in electronics assembly," said Mike Buetow, UPMG vice president, editorial and production, and editor in chief of CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY. "We are thrilled to name the Hall of Fame for Electronics Assembly after a true industry legend."

During his career, Raby has been issued patents for wave soldering and embedded components, and initiated the Zero Defect Program for wave soldering. He also was the driver of the "Lights Out Factory" concept that revolutionized the modern electronics manufacturing facility.

Perhaps Raby's greatest influence has come from training generations of engineers and soldering technicians. For more than 30 years, Raby has worked on industry standards, including DOD-STD-2000, MIL-STD-2000, J-STD-001 and IPC-A-610. He also helped write and implement standards for wire harnesses. He has been involved in the research for lead-free solder processes and materials. His seminal paper, "Standardization of Military Specifications," was the roadmap for reducing some 219 specifications into a single four-document set known as MIL-STD-2000, the precursor to J-STD-001 and IPC-A-610. He has worked on more than a dozen standards and training programs, and chaired or vice-chaired committees on soldering, rework and repair, component mounting, and product assurance. He wrote the curriculum and conducted beta testing for IPC training programs for J-STD-001, IPC-A-610D, IPC/WHMA-A-620, and IPC-7711/7721A, and received the IPC Presidents Award in 1984.

Other members of the first induction class are Moe Abramson and Stanislaus Danko, inventors of the first automated dip soldering process; George Devol, inventor of the first digitally programmable robot; and R. J. Klein Wassink, Philips lead technical engineer in the 1970s-90s and author of several leading works on electronics soldering and assembly.

The Jim Raby Hall of Fame resides at http://www.circuitsassembly.com/cms/hall-of-fame.

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