WARWICKSHIRE, UK — The IPC Hand Soldering Competition took place this month here, where first prize went to Justyna Mikolajczyk, Zettlex.

Mikolajczyk completed a functional board in 52 minutes and 42 seconds, earning 440 points out of 445, taking home £300 in cash and new soldering stations from JBC and Hakko.

Twenty competitors demonstrated their soldering skills. Participants were tasked with building a functional electronics assembly with more than 400 components within a 60-minute time limit. The completed assembly was judged not only on speed of completion, but on workmanship, overall functionality and compliance with IPC-A-610G Class 3 criteria.

Second place went to Phillip Smith, CIL, who completed his board in 60 minutes, earning 421 points. Smith, a former UK champion in hand soldering, received a cash prize of £200.

Third place went to Przemyslaw Marzalek, MSF Technologies, who completed his board in 56 minutes, 30 seconds, earning him 405 points and a cash prize of £100. Przemyslaw was the UK Champion last year and competed for the world championship at IPC Apex Expo earlier this year.

“It was evident the best hand soldering talent in the United Kingdom came to compete at What’s New in Electronics Live,” said David Bergman, IPC vice president of standards and training. “The competition was tough, but each competitor rose to the challenge. We look forward to hosting more hand soldering competitions across the globe.”

Regional winners are eligible to compete at the IPC Hand Soldering World Championship at Productronica this November.

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