Manufacturer of Electronic Welding Machinery Controls

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Warning of unauthorized copies of Weldtron Products circuit boards.

Thanks to our loyal customer base (comprising many welding machinery maintenance and repair organizations) we have uncovered companies who are manufacturing and selling our products as their own.  They are in clear violation of patent, copyright laws and general laws concerning intellectual rights exclusively held by Weldtron Products----the inventor and sole manufacturer of all electronic products advertised on our website or any other publication. These companies are unscrupulous in the fact that they mislead the customer to believe they are selling our products or in leading them to believe they are the inventor and legitimate producer of the product.  They are criminal in the fact that they are stealing from Weldtron Products and defrauding the customer. We invented the Linc-I and Linc-II generic circuit boards after the price of OEM idle boards for the SA series and Classic series boards rose to a point where it became profitable for us to manufacture a competitive replacement.  The simplicity of our design was novel and consequently used so few parts that unscrupulous individuals and businesses started to copy it and advertise it as their own invention and product. To date we have positively identified three of these businesses by obtaining their product: Welder Parts Sales of Morgan City La. Welder Parts Service of Morgan City La. (currently out of business.) Engine Rebuilding & Specialty of Corpus Christi, Tx. We are now starting to receive these fake boards in for repair since our customers are now being fooled into believing that these similar looking boards are our product.  In some cases they actually send them in for warranty repairs!  Failure of these fake boards is much higher due to poor workmanship and the fact that they are hand soldered--not wave soldered by machine.  Consequently, vibration will cause a much greater failure rate. Due to the fake boards looking almost exactly like our product, customers experiencing poor performance confuse it with our product.  This leads to an unjust tarnished reputation of our products. To help our customers identify fake boards and to help end confusion in requesting service or warranty on these products, the information below will assist. HOW TO IDENTIFY FRAUDULENT PRODUCTS. The original and genuine Weldtron Products Linc-I Idler Board. The board above is a genuine Weldtron Products LINC-I generic idler board. Pay particular attention to the leads coming out of the red reed switch.  The fake boards do not have the reed switch leads mounted on the solder layer of the board.  All fake boards have the reed switch soldered to a "pigtail" coming from underneath the circuit board.    This is the view of the bottom of our board.  Notice that it is completely machine wave soldered and is covered with identification to us.  Wave soldering the board produces a thick solder layer on the board traces and on the terminal connections. It contains the words: Alice, Texas, 361-664-4413, Weldtron and Linc-I.  Not much confusion here as to who owns the rights to this board!  Older Models will have the words IC-106 or 980-108 on them. ALL GENUINE Weldtron Products are very well labeled and our name is on all things we produce.   The first company to begin copying our products was Welder Parts Sales of Morgan City, La.  Their  fake board  is shown below. The fraudulent copy of our board by Welder Parts Sales of Morgan City, LA. Top of the board is almost identical to our Linc-I.  The only difference is the reed switch is soldered to a "pigtail" coming from underneath the board. On the two boards in our possession about 40% of all terminals have come loose from the poor soldering beneath the board. The board design was copied directly from one of our Linc-I series boards without any artwork changes or component layout changes.  The simply stole our design and invention and claimed it as their own. This is the first of a series of unauthorized copies of our product.  The name of the company is on the foil side of the board and at one time other information was placed below it.  On the boards we have that information has been ground off.  We also have another board from this company that has all company information ground off. Both boards in our possession are of very poor quality in soldering techniques.   Welder Parts Sales of Morgan City La. sold a portion of their business and it was named Welder Parts Service of Morgan City La..  Confusing isn't it? As part of the sale they sold the poor fool who bought it the right to manufacture these unauthorized circuit boards.  He was told that they were invented by Welders Parts Sales and the right to manufacture these was part of the sales package.  It became part of a "Non-Competitive" package included in the sale. Shortly after notifying the new owner that he was violating copyright laws and other laws pertaining to intellectual property he ceased selling the unauthorized boards.  The company is now out of business. The fraudulent copy of our board by Welder Parts Service of Morgan City, LA. This is the fake Weldtron Products board manufactured and sold by Welder Parts Service, Inc. under the part number WPM16725.2. Notice the lead coming from the red reed switch assy.  It is hand soldered to another wire protruding from under the board on each end. Other than that, the board looks exactly like ours. Welder Parts Service, Inc. personnel  simply inserted and soldered the components into the board. This board does not have solder applied to the mounting pads for the grounding bushing and eventually will corrode causing failure of the board to it's ground connection. The top of the board is coated but the bottom is not.  When they sprayed the top they also sprayed the metal connecting terminals.    This is the bottom of the Welder Parts Service, Inc. board.  It is an EXACT copy of our copyrighted board pattern. The first thing you notice is that the foil on the board is plated--not wave soldered. The second thing you notice is the poor quality hand soldering on the component connections.   Once Welder Parts Service of Morgan City, La. closed, another unscrupulous business started manufacturing our circuit boards and presenting them as their own invention and product.  This company actually used to purchase our boards and knew that these boards were our original design years ago.  When Welder Parts Service closed they lost their source of supply. The fraudulent copy of our board by Engine Rebuilding & Specialty of Corpus Christi, TX. The printed circuit board is laid out identically to ours but the output transistor has a different part number and the reed switch coil has been changed. For some reason they thought they needed a heavier reed switch coil even though we have never had a failure with our smaller lighter coil.  This board is a "through plated" process and is not suitable for easy repair. The board is not coated in any manner to provide protection against the elements and corrosion and will fail when damp or wet.   The foil side of the board reveals all.  It is "solder masked" and the terminal identifications we have in foil are silk screened on the bottom of the board. Notice the extremely poor quality of soldering--especially on the high current carrying (and high vibration) terminals. This fraudulent board had a minor change in the routing of only one leg (from Y) from our original design. The bottom of the board is not coated and the pad areas where the grounding bushing mounts is simply plated--not built up on a pad of solder.   The extremely poor quality of placing the reed switch can be seen here.  Wires have been brought up from under the board and then the reed switch mounted through the reed coil and soldered to these wires.  Notice the bind on the switch leads coming from the reed coil. In all cases these fraudulent copies of our original board clearly show a lack of knowledge in both circuit assembly and proper soldering methods. Please check your stock for any other electronic circuits that you have purchased from any of these companies and segregate them from our products if you have them in stock.  Please contact me if you find any of the fraudulent items in your stock or have been replaced due to failure.  Wide distribution of this page within your organization would be appreciated.  Theft of intellectual and proprietary property cannot be tolerated within the legitimate business community.  David C. Herbert Owner, Weldtron Products