Ipc 620
Ipc 620
Ipc 620
2022–October
Requirements and
Acceptance for Cable and
Wire Harness Assemblies
Supersedes IPC/WHMA-A-620D
January 2020
An international standard developed by IPC
23
IPC Mission IPC is a global trade association dedicated to furthering the competitive excellence and financial
success of its members, who are participants in the electronics industry.
In pursuit of these objectives, IPC will devote resources to management improvement and
technology enhancement programs, the creation of relevant standards, protection of the
environment, and pertinent government relations.
IPC encourages the active participation of all its members in these activities and commits to full
cooperation with all related organizations.
About IPC IPC standards and publications are designed to serve the public interest through eliminating
Standards misunderstandings between manufacturers and purchasers, facilitating interchangeability and
improvement of products, and assisting the purchaser in selecting and obtaining with minimum
delay the proper product for their particular need. Existence of such IPC standards and publications
shall not in any respect preclude any entity from manufacturing or selling products not conforming
to such IPC standards and publication, nor shall the existence of such IPC standards and
publications preclude their voluntary use.
IPC standards and publications are approved by IPC committees without regard to whether the
IPC standards or publications may involve patents on articles, materials or processes. By such
action, IPC does not assume any liability to any patent owner, nor does IPC assume any obligation
whatsoever to parties adopting an IPC standard or publication. Users are wholly responsible for
protecting themselves against all claims of liabilities for patent infringement.
IPC Position The use and implementation of IPC standards and publications are voluntary and part of a
Statement on relationship entered into by customer and supplier. When an IPC standard or publication is revised
Specification or amended, the use of the latest revision or amendment as part of an existing relationship is
Revision Change not automatic unless required by the contract. IPC recommends the use of the latest revision or
amendment.
Standards IPC welcomes comments for improvements to any standard in its library. All comments will be
Improvement provided to the appropriate committee.
Recommendations
If a change to technical content is requested, data to support the request is recommended. Technical
comments to include new technologies or make changes to published requirements should be
accompanied by technical data to support the request. This information will be used by the
committee to resolve the comment.
To submit your comments, visit the IPC Status of Standardization page at www.ipc.org/status.
©Copyright 2022. IPC International, Bannockburn, Illinois. All rights reserved under both international and Pan-American
copyright conventions. Any copying, scanning or other reproduction of these materials without the prior written consent of
the copyright holder is strictly prohibited and constitutes infringement under the Copyright Law of the United States.
Association Connecting Electronics Industries
IPC/WHMA-A-620E
®
Requirements and
Acceptance for Cable
and Wire Harness
If a conflict occurs
between the English Assemblies
language and translated
versions of this document,
the English version will
take precedence.
IPC recognizes this A-Team for their exceptional leadership and effort in the development of this standard. IPC A-Teams
are dedicated groups of volunteers who undertake a significant amount of work in standards development on behalf of
their group.
A special thank you to 7-31F-AT Wire Nutz for their dedication and commitment to this effort. Their support and time
during the development of this document is greatly appreciated.
Bud Bowen Garry McGuire Tyler Siebert
Thomas Carle NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Lockheed Martin Missiles
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Scott Meyer & Fire Control
Thank you to 7-31F-TEAMBONES for their dedication in working the x-ray criteria for this document.
Robert Bowden John Mastorides Timothy Pearson
Impact Centre for Training & Staffing Honeywell Aerospace Collins Aerospace
Milea Kammer Garry McGuire Christina Rutherford*
Honeywell International NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Honeywell Aerospace
Joseph Kane Scott Meyer George Tristan
BAE Systems Collins Aerospace Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.
Rebekah Kovarik George Millman
Lockheed Martin Raytheon Missile Systems
Thank you to 7-31F-SUGARKANE for their dedication in working the terms and definitions in Appendix A of this
document.
Catherine Hanlin Scott Meyer Christina Rutherford
Precision Manufacturing Company, Collins Aerospace Honeywell Aerospace
Inc.
Joseph Kane*
BAE Systems
REGIONAL GROUPS
1.0 General
1.1 Scope This standard prescribes practices and requirements for the manufacture of cable, wire and harness assemblies. This
standard does not provide criteria for cross-section or X-ray evaluation. For X-ray guidelines, see Appendix D X-Ray Guidelines.
If a conflict occurs between the English and translated versions of this document, the English version will take precedence.
The illustrations in this document portray specific points noted in the title of each section. The development committee recognizes
that different parts of the industry have different definitions for some terms used herein. For the purposes of this document, the
terms cable and wire harness are used interchangeably. &*+
IPC/WHMA-A-620 can be used as a stand-alone document for purchasing products, however it does not specify frequency of
in-process inspection or frequency of end product inspection. No limit is placed on the number of process indicators or the number
of allowable repair/rework of defects. Such information should be developed with a statistical process control plan (see IPC-9191).
1.2 Purpose This standard describes materials, methods, tests and acceptability criteria for producing crimped, mechanically
secured, or soldered interconnections and the related assembly activities associated with cable and harness assemblies.
The intent of this document is to rely on process control methodology to ensure consistent quality levels during the manufacture
of products.
Any method that produces an assembly conforming to the acceptability requirements described in this standard may be used.
Standards may be updated at any time, including with the use of amendments. The use of an amendment or newer revision is not
automatically required. The revision in effect shall [D1D2D3] be as specified by the User.
1.3 Classification Use of this standard requires agreement on the Class to which the product belongs. The User has the ultimate
responsibility for identifying the Class to which the assembly is evaluated. If the User does not establish and document the
acceptance Class, the Manufacturer may do so. Criteria defined in this standard reflect three Product Classes, which are as follows:
Class 1 General Electronic Products
Includes products suitable for applications where the major requirement is the function of the completed assembly.
Class 2 Dedicated Service Electronic Products
Includes products where continued performance and extended life is required, and for which uninterrupted service is desired but
not critical. Typically, the end-use environment would not cause failures.
Class 3 High Performance/Harsh Environment Electronic Products
Includes products where continued performance or performance-on-demand is critical, equipment downtime cannot be tolerated,
end-use environment may be uncommonly harsh, and the equipment must function when required, such as life support systems
and other critical systems.
1.4 Measurement Units and Applications This document uses the International System of Units (SI) in accordance with
IEEE/ASTM SI 10, American National Standard for Metric Practice (Section 3). Imperial English equivalent units follow in
brackets. The derived SI units used in this document are millimeters (mm) [in] for dimensions and dimensional tolerances, Celsius
(°C) [°F] for temperature and temperature tolerances, grams (g) [oz] for weight, and lux (lx) [foot-candles] for illuminance.
1.4.1 Verification of Dimensions Where not specifically invoked by this standard, actual measurements, e.g., of specific solder fillet
dimensions, determination of damage and wrap percentages, are not required except for referee purposes.
1.5 Definition of Requirements The words ‘‘shall’’ or “shall not” are used in the text of this document wherever there is a
requirement for materials, process or acceptance of cable, wire and harness assemblies.
Where the words ‘‘shall’’ or “shall not” indicates a requirement for at least one Class, the requirements for each Class are in
brackets next to the ‘‘shall’’ or “shall not” requirement.
N = No requirement has been established for this Class
A = Acceptable
P = Process Indicator
D = Defect
Examples:
[A1P2D3] is Acceptable Class 1, Process Indicator Class 2 and Defect Class 3
[N1D2D3] is Requirement Not Established Class 1, Defect Classes 2 and 3