Which Philips Factory Made The "English" EL3300/1 Model ?

[Maarten]

Originally Posted by dazzlevision

BA was the Croydon factory code applied to complete products and BY was used to identify production changes, such as the label applied to individual plug-in modules in their G8 colour TV chassis (designed and made by Croydon).

BA and BY are codes in the same origin letter system and each point to specific factories. There was no such thing as a separate origin letter system that was only used to identify production changes as far as I know. I have BY confirmed from official documents to point to the Dunfermline factory and from sightings I know they indeed produced TV subassemblies but also portable radio's. From the same document, BR is used for Mitcham and BU for Washington (deflection components).

[Maarten]

Originally Posted by Sideband

I used to have a list of factory codes....it's on a CD somewhere. I'll try and find them. It was one of the things I got from the Croydon office before it closed in 2004 and we were made redundant.

I am also very interested in such internal information, not limited to origin letters only, also not limited to coding information though that is my main focus.

[dazzlevision]

Further to Maarten's comments, I may be mistaken about the BY coding relating purely to production modification versions of sub assemblies. However, taking the G8 UK designed and made CTV chassis as an example, the BY code labels on plug-in modules did identify production changes and this is clearly shown in the G8 service manual. Of course, "BY" on its own could indicate the module was made elsewhere than Croydon factory, whereas the numbers that followed (BY00, BY01, etc) indicated the specific production changes.

A lot of Mullard varicap TV tuners had the "BY" coding on their paper labels.

Here is a list of the UK Philips factories that produced TV related components (apart from valves and CRTs), which I have identified in my researches:

Philips Croydon, Commerce Way, Purley Way, Croydon (opened in 1954, closed in 1988). TV factory. Prior to the opening of Croydon, work was done at Mitcham, Harlesden and Glasgow.

Queensferry Road, Dunfermline. TV components and sub-assemblies (in 1979).

Thornaby, North Yorkshire (in 1973) – varicap TV tuners

Stephenson Estate, Washington, Co Durham. Deflection/convergence wound components for CRTs (in 1978).

[Maarten]

You are quite right of course, origin letters are also used to identify production changes. If only because different factories could have different changes for the same part.

Thank you for the more detailed information on the factories! Thornaby is new to me, will have to find out which origin letters belong to that factory.

P.S. On Mitcham: they used to have origin letter M, then later changed to BR. I have never seen products coded BR, it was likely changed only after mainstream production moved to Croydon.

[dazzlevision]

Originally Posted by Maarten

P.S. On Mitcham: they used to have origin letter M, then later changed to BR. I have never seen products coded BR, it was likely changed only after mainstream production moved to Croydon.

I've just come across a rotary transistor UHF tuner (type AT6380, with BF180 & BF181 transistors) with a "BR" type and serial number paper label stick on it. This would date from the late 1960s, I estimate.

[ekcopyephilips]

Maybe it wasn't made at Croydon at all, in 'The Pye book of audio" on page 44 is a large colour photo of Pye's Stevenage audio factory in 1972. There are pictures of radiograms and car stereos being made. At this point Philips would have had a large stake (not controlling) in Pye and Philips badged Televisions were at this point being made at the Pye Lowestoft TV factory.

Cheers

Mike

[dazzlevision]

If you are commenting on who manufactured the Philips EL3300 in the UK, then it wouldn't have been made by Pye, in which Philips acquired a 70% stake in 1967. Philips agreed to keep Pye "at arms length" for ten years, after which, it acquired complete control.