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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:
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Welder Parts Sales of Morgan City La.
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Welder Parts Service of Morgan City La. (currently out of
business.)
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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.
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The original and genuine Weldtron
Products Linc-I Idler Board. |
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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.
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The first company to begin copying our products was
Welder Parts Sales of Morgan City, La. Their fake board is
shown below. |
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The fraudulent copy of our board by Welder
Parts Sales of Morgan City, LA. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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The fraudulent copy of our board by Welder
Parts Service of Morgan City, LA. |
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| 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.
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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.
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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. |
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The fraudulent copy of our board by
Engine Rebuilding & Specialty of Corpus Christi, TX. |
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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.
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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.
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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
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