Home / IPC/WHMA-A-620
IPC/WHMA-A-620 is the requirements and acceptance standard for cable and wire harness assemblies. We bring the class to your facility and certify each person to the modules they actually use. Nobody travels and nobody loses a week.
Or see what is covered and how the class runs.
San Diego County through Orange County · Otay Mesa to Irvine
What it is
IPC/WHMA-A-620, Requirements and Acceptance for Cable and Wire Harness Assemblies, is the only industry-consensus standard for cable and harness work. It covers how crimped, soldered and mechanically secured connections get made, and what counts as acceptable once they are.
Taught to Revision F, current since October 2025.
What it sets requirements for
Who it is for
Harness builders, cable assemblers, inspectors and the engineers who write the process. If someone in your building crimps, solders or routes wire on product that ships, they should hold this.
A customer or registrar wants proof your harness team is trained to a recognized standard, with traceable certification behind it.
You brought people on and they are crimping and routing to tribal knowledge instead of the standard.
Twenty-four months came around faster than expected and you have people about to fall out of compliance.
You won work that names IPC/WHMA-A-620 or Class 3 in the purchase order, and now you have to show certified people on the build.
Orlando has 25 years in manufacturing, from building boards in production to quality assurance to training. He has run more than 500 trainings across San Diego County in the last four years, and he is a Certified IPC Trainer, authorized by IPC to teach and certify your people to the standard.
What is covered
Module 1 is required for every student. The rest let you certify people to the work they actually do. Each module covers the accept and reject criteria for all three classes and ends in an open book exam.
Module 1 is mandatory. Students can certify to any combination of modules that includes it. We will tell you whether a partial certification is a reasonable call for a role or whether it will cause you problems later.
Optional hands-on
The base certification proves your people know the criteria. The hands-on add-on has them build a cable assembly to the standard, with the work checked against it. Worth it for new builders and for shops whose customers ask to see it.
How the class runs
We run a short discovery call to learn the nuances of your business, pick the modules that fit each role, sort out tooling if you are adding hands-on work, lock down the date, and prep you and your team.
Module 1 and the first block of modules, each followed by its open book exam. Students test the same day they learn the material rather than sitting one long exam at the end.
Run through the remaining modules and exams. Anyone who did not pass a Day 1 exam breaks away from the group for a second pass with the instructor. Hands-on work, if you added it, happens here.
Every student is registered by name and the certification is traceable through IPC, now the Global Electronics Association. You get the roster with the final invoice.
How we are different
The certification is identical either way. What changes is what it costs you to get it.
The cost
A 620 quote depends on which modules your people need and whether you add hands-on work, so we build each one by hand. Enter your headcount to see the fixed costs, then send it over and we will come back with the full number.
Need recertification instead of a first certification? Pricing is different and we quote those directly. Ask us for a recert quote.
Your estimate
Books are not included. They come in hardcopy, PDF and online formats, and you buy them directly. We will tell you which one fits and where to get it. This is an estimate, not a contract.
Where should we send it?
Workmanship kits apply only if you add the hands-on portion. Pricing effective August 2026 and depends on headcount, modules and location.
Questions
No. Module 1 is required for every student. After that, students can certify to any combination of the remaining modules, so a crimp operator does not have to sit through coaxial cable if they never touch it. A full certification covers all eight. We will tell you honestly which modules fit each role.
They are the standard's three levels of strictness, and your certification covers all three. Class 1 is general electronic products that only have to work when you turn them on. Class 2 is dedicated service products where a failure costs money and downtime but nobody gets hurt. Class 3 is high performance and harsh environment hardware that cannot fail, like medical, aerospace and defense. The same crimp can pass Class 2 and fail Class 3, which is why we teach all three.
The base certification is bookwork and open book exams. Hands-on workmanship is an optional add-on where students build a cable assembly to the standard. It needs a workmanship kit for each student and a set of crimp tooling your facility buys once and keeps.
Cable and harness classes vary more than board classes. Module mix, hands-on work, kits and tooling all move the number. We build these quotes by hand so the number you get is the number you pay. The IPC exam credit is the one fixed line, billed at exactly what IPC charges us.
Revision F, published October 2025 and current. If your customer documentation still calls out Revision E, tell us and we will cover the differences that matter to your process.
IPC-A-610 and J-STD-001 cover circuit board assemblies. IPC/WHMA-A-620 covers cables and wire harnesses. If your shop builds both, your harness people need 620 and your board people need A-610 or J-STD-001.
Not at this time. We do offer the J-STD-001 Space addendum for board-level space hardware.
Twenty-four months. IPC allows a 90 day grace period after expiration, and you can recertify up to 90 days early without losing time, since the new expiration is measured from the original date rather than the class date. We track your roster dates and come back before anyone lapses.
One to ten students in a class. Larger groups get split across consecutive days.
A conference room for the bookwork and the online exams, a computer for each student plus guest wifi, and your student roster with IPC usernames so certifications land correctly for audits. If you add hands-on work, you also need bench space and the crimp tooling. You buy the IPC/WHMA-A-620 book directly. We tell you which format fits and where to get it.
Yes. Send us your roster with expiration dates and we will schedule around them. Recertification is shorter than an initial certification and we can usually fold it into a visit where you are also certifying new hires.
Get started
Send over the headcount, the kind of harness work they do and a rough timeframe. We will come back with a price and available dates within one business day.