Originally membership was limited to UK EMC test labs that were accredited by the UK’s national accreditation authority, but since then it has been extended to any country.

Membership is now open to any test laboratory that can show they are working towards being accredited by their national accreditation authority.

EMC consultants have been allowed to become ‘consultant members’ in recent years, and Cherry Clough Consultants joined as soon as it was possible.

The original purpose of the EMCTLA was to enable test labs to agree of how to test items of equipment, given the ambiguities that are present in the EMC test standards. After all, it is very important that accredited test laboratories all test in the same way. No other EMC test lab association in the world has been even partly as successful as the EMCTLA in helping to achieve consistency of application of EMC test standards.

The EMCTLA also has various working groups trying to reduce ambiguities and assist progress in other areas….

• WG(A) Military – comments on defence standards and the relationship between military and civil equipment.
• WG(B) EMC and other Directive issues for example EMC & Functional Safety
• WG(C) – Technical Guidance Notes (TGNs). This committee together with working sub-groups addresses all technical matters related to commercial equipment.
• UKAS Liaison – covers matters relating to UK test lab accreditation issues

Cherry Clough Consultants is an active member of WG(B) and has helped write a number of TGNs.

The EMCTLA also acts as a representative group for its members and has regular dealings with the DTI (in the UK), the European Commission and other organisations. It is active in UK standards committees with representation on GEL 210 and also the three reporting technical committees GEL 210/08, 11 and 12.