Triple C - A Success Story

Dave Fynn and Alan Hutley talk with

James Gordon-Colebrooke, Managing Director

Whilst we approached this visit with an open mind, the thought was always there that Triple C was just another test house down the rankings league, but from the opening moments of the conversation with James Gordon-Colebrooke, Managing Director, these thoughts were soon dispelled. 

The dedication and enthusiasm oozed from JC.  But then this is probably not surprising as back in 1988 when the business was started from the back bedroom of his house, which he also had to mortgage to provide working capital and purchase a few thousand pounds worth of equipment like Spectrum Analyzers, Aerials and an LF Test Receiver, Triple C have come a long way and are now a very profitable and professional organization.  Which is probably one of the reasons why they have bulging order books.

We would now say it is much nearer the top of the rankings than the bottom.

“Most definitely a force to be reckoned with, ignore us at your peril” is what James says to those who think they are in the minor league.  

“Triple C moved to their current location, Lawn Farm Business Centre in April ’91.  A tough time during the ’92-93 recession, made worse by the decision of the powers that be to delay implementation of the EMC Directive” said James.

“We started to obtain a reputation for Modem Approvals and landed a couple of very big contracts. The Company started to grow at this point, but recognizing that modems were not going to be around forever, we made a conscious effort to invest in EMC.

Moving into Unit 5 we lined part of the unit to create a screened room and invested in some further EMC equipment.  1994/1995 was to prove exceptional as with most test houses at the time, working 7 days a week.  We took on more staff and equipment.  In 1995 we obtained UKAS accreditation. This really opened another door.

1996 we took over another 2 Units and built our first Anechoic Chamber.  Financed entirely from running capital, we created the beginnings of Triple C today.  Following the most recent round of investment, we now boast some of the best independent facilities in the country. We have 3 Anechoic Chambers all 61000-4-3 compliant.”

As well as UKAS, Triple C are also accredited by BSMI for Taiwan, VCCI for Japan and are a VCA witness test house for “e” marking automotive components. They also have collaborative agreements with Telcordia for testing to GR-1089. Ford has also granted Triple C accreditation as an approved test facility for testing to the Full Ford Specification.

The latest investment has a full 3m anechoic chamber installed in partnership with Panashield and EMC Chamber Services, but the design of which was down to James himself.  The chamber is fully compliant CISPR 16 and ANSI 63.4 allowing indoor fully compliant 3m emissions measurements. The chamber is specifically designed to handle large equipment with entry doors measuring 9 feet in height and 8 feet wide, single and three-phase power. There are sub floor compartments for support equipment and under floor cable trays back to the control room for remote monitoring.

The Triple C Team

Left to right: back row - Ray Burn, Declan Conaty; next step - Alex McKay; next step - Wendy Gordon-Colebrooke, Barry Williams; next step - Robert Allbright;  front row - C.C.Leung, James Gordon-Colebrooke, Ian Babbington, Geoff Routh, Robert Downer.

Anechoic No. 3 - Brand New 3m Chamber

They have also just purchased a Rohde and Schwarz ESBI26, the latest receiver, giving emissions coverage from 20Hz to 26GHz in one piece of equipment. With the new AR 500W1000, they are now able to offer RF immunity and free field-testing to well over 100V/m from 10kHz to 18GHz.

Their equipment list allows them to perform audio frequency immunity, ground shift automotive transients and power supply dropout tests to Ford, GM, Fiat and other vehicle specifications.  They can also successfully test a range of highly specialized EMC projects. Space Satellite projects is one good example.

OATS 1 Night Testing

So what of the Future for Triple C?

“We plan to continue to invest in our facilities and offer a unique and specialized EMC test service. Automotive testing now forms an increasingly large part of our test work and we would expect to continue with this under the AEMCLAP accredited banner. We expect the frequency range of both emissions and immunity to continue to change but we are already well set up to deal with this.

Triple C would hope to continue to support all its customers with the quality service already offered. We are currently 12 people but are now looking to expand and run a second shift and are currently looking for engineers to support this move. We have made a profit every year since we started and are looking to our best year ever for 2002.”

In what some might say is a current gloomy climate economically speaking, this is certainly not the message coming from Triple C, a true success story, and it is not finished yet.

Contact Triple C on tel: +44 (0)01296 770088,

Email: sales@triplec.co.uk or visit the website http://www.triplec.co.uk/