News

12/09/11

Welding Industries of Australia (WIA)
Product Recall Statement

On 12^th September, 2011 – Welding Industries of Australia announced a product recall of its Weldmatic 190 MIG welding machine due to a manufacturing assembly process error. 

WIA is committed to producing products of the highest quality.  The safety of our customers is our primary concern.  As such, the decision to recall this product was made voluntarily after a defect was discovered during the routine quality assurance testing process which all WIA machines are subjected to.

We discovered the method of routing the wires from the transformer to the voltage selection switches had resulted in insufficient distance being left between the wires and ventilation louvres.    

Under normal circumstances, the consumer’s switch board, a circuit breaker or electrical safety switch should operate and the product would remain safe.  There is a small risk of a consumer receiving an electric shock, which would require a number of conditions to be present simultaneously, including: the louvre piercing the wiring insulation; and the welding torch trigger is operated; and the consumer’s installation earth system is faulty (no circuit breaker operates); and the consumer touches the exposed metal fixing screws whilst in contact with an earthed object. 

We have worked with the ACCC to ensure the necessary action is taken to alert our customers and remove the possibility of this defect posing any risk. 

The manufacturing process has been adapted to ensure this defect does not occur again, with additional inspection points inserted into the process.

The affected products can be identified from the serial number range below:

Part number complete package - CP131-0
Part number power supply only - CP131-2
Serial Number: C1312A1110..., C1312A0111..., C1312A0311... & C1312A0411...
Some of C1312A0611… and some of C1312A0711…

Customers with a machine in the affected serial number range are advised to stop using this product and contact our Customer Service team on 1300 300 884 to locate their local service agent to have their product rectified. No other Weldmatic MIG machines are affected.  We aim to have this matter resolved with minimal inconvenience for our customers.