History

In April of 1967, on the initiative of the advisory board of the VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) radio laboratory, representatives of state institutions and Finnish electronics companies were invited to attend a conference to discuss the development of testing in Finland, reliability research, international collaboration and the required organisation.

In June of 1967 a commission set up at the conference proposed the establishment of a "Collaborative body for the trial-testing and study of components (KTY.)" The constitutive meeting was held on 25.9.1967. Twelve companies and institutions registered as members at that meeting, and the VTT radio laboratory volunteered to provide the KTY with office- and secretarial services.

Founding members:
1 Oy Fiskars Ab, Electronics
2 Airforce Headquarters
3 Imatran Voima Oy
4 Oy Nokia Ab, Electronics
5 Post and Telegraph Administration
6 GHQ (General Staff of the Armed Forces, main headquarters), dept. of electrical engineering
7 Oy Strömberg Ab
8 Televa
9 Vaisala Oy
10 Wallac Oy
11 Finnish State Railways
12 Oy Yleisradio Ab (Finnish Broadcasting Company)

The following were elected to the working committee:
Chairman: Diploma Engineer (DI) Aare Toivanen, Oy Strömberg Ab
Deputy chairman: DI Jouni Koivisto, GHQ
DI Lauri Saari, Oy Nokia Ab
Yli-ins. Heikki Vehkaoja, Posti- ja lennätinhallitus
Secretary: DI Jussi Kupila, nominated by VTT

At their first meeting, the working committee decided on the acronym KOTEL. At first, KOTEL strove towards the organised sharing of information on component testing, but soon centered it activities on a workgroup mode of collaboration comprising the formulation of recommendations, drawing up of questionnaires and the publication of workgroup reports dealing with topical issues in the fields of components, environmental testing and quality.

In order to consolidate its position, KOTEL became a registered association in 1983. Amongst other things, this made it possible to arrange funding for research projects. In 1986, KOTEL broadened its activities to include collaboration at the Nordic level by signing a co-operative agreement with sister organisations in the other Scandinavian countries. Collaboration takes the form of sharing information on the reports, training events and research projects undertaken by the respective sister organisations.

KEPS:
-KOTEL
-ITTF (formerly EKF)
-EPIGON + (formerly PROSAM)
-SPM

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