'There are plenty of people who won't make it in time'

During the 'Best solder in the Benelux' competition, a first during E&A 2019, great prizes can be won every fair day. But in order for everything to be fair and to obtain an expert opinion, an expert jury member is of course needed. Stefan Walls from PIEK training will take on this role. We spoke to him briefly.

Walls has years of experience at PIEK in providing professional training for manual soldering. He says: “We at PIEK are a training institute and provide training to companies. For example, I am now training a person from Pakistan, so we really work internationally.”

As a soldering expert, Walls has been involved in soldering competitions for many years: “I have been participating in competitions as a jury member for ten years. At least every year in Nuremberg. I can now see within two minutes whether someone will make it during a soldering competition or not.”

As a jury member, he pays attention to several points: “I look at the skills, the use of the correct procedures, whether the work is accepted according to existing standards and of course the duration.” For example, he pays attention to the settings that participants use: “As jury members, we also see the temperatures, including if someone uses the wrong temperature. That is also a bit of safety.”

According to Walls, a competitive round lasts from 45 minutes to an hour. The challenge is determined, among other things, by the design of the PCB (during E&A the design came from Conrad): “The complexity partly depends on the printed circuit board, but also on the parts that need to be placed on it. And with the tin, there are different types.”

The master solder goes on to say that organizing soldering competitions during trade fairs makes some participants a bit nervous: “There are plenty of people who don't make it in time. Some participants get nervous because people are looking over their shoulders. Then they become stressed because of the crowds.”

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