My (bad) experience with Triumph Laser Machines

[Carlos Barros]

My (bad) experience with Triumph Laser Machines


Hi everyone,
I'm registered at this forum for a couple of months, and came in frequently to learn with you guys more experienced, but haven't posted before. Well, this is my first one and saddly it's not for the best reasons. Just to try to warn some other unexperienced like me before they make the same mistakes.


I bought in november/december 2013 a Triumph TR1390 laser cutting machine 80W from Shenzhen Triumph Industrial co.,LTD, which arrived in my country in february, (very unluckily in the chinese new years week where they are all closed and I couldn't sort any kind of problems). Customs of my country soon started to spot a lot of problems, like no serial number, model TR1390 not inscribed on the machine, instruction manual only in (bad) english, but worst of all without a valid CE certificated (people at Triumph switched labels as well). Well after a lot of conversations and as I couldn't reach Triumph, I signed a document to bring the machine home, but could not use it until I certificate the machine through a portuguese institute CATIM (which are simply leeches). Later I contacted Triumph to support the costs on this certificate as it was simply their fault, and they refused. Then we have agreed at least to pay half. Never got that money. Cutting story short, I understood by CATIM attitude they were only interested in my money, and that would be too expensive (they charged 400 euros for each visit plus VAT) and told me to solve the problem they would need several visits. So I came the conclusion the machine won't worth it, and soon spoke with Triumph to solve the problem. They told they wouldn't want the machine back as cost would be higher then the machine itself. They told me to keep it. But customs doesn't act like this. Or you send the machine back to the manufacturer or you should destroy at your own cost. I again spoke with Triumph which have kindly refunded me the machine cost, but never payed me all other costs I had with a bad machine, not certificated, not valid for european countries.


Machine did cost me almost 3000 USD (refunded), however I had to pay 2239.80 EUR (almost 2800 USD) in fees for customs/carrier/vat, plus 467 euros to CATIM for one single visit, plus 285 EUR to destroy the machine, not counting the inumerous trips from home to customs to try to avoid any kind of fines.


So, if you're think to put a lot of money on a laser cutting machine coming outside your economic region, think twice before you make the same mistakes I did.


Meanwhile as I couldn't work with this machine, I had to buy a new one, but bought it through a portuguese importer. It also came from Taiwan I suppose, but it came certificate, and I had not to deal with any problem. Besides that I'm very happy with this one.


Kind regards.
Carlos

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Wow. The photos say it all. I can't even begin to imagine the frustration you went through ... and no doubt will feel for some time. I'm sorry to read about your financial loss in this matter too.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Welcome to the world of direct imports my friend, very very few if any Chinese machines will pass UK factories inspections and while they may well have CE marks some of those are certified for hobby use and NOT industrial. Over here CE for a laser engraver and a laser cutter are different classes as are the import regulations.
The biggest problem is when a machine comes in and skips past customs as a hobby machine then later on is sold as an industrial or business use machine, this can leave the seller open to criminal prosecution inside the EU if the sold item does not meet both radiation and electrical standards.

On a recent visit from HSE (Health & Safety Executive) I asked the inspector if one of the metal cutting lasers direct from China would pass muster? His response was "We have been friends a long time Dave, if you put one of those machines in here I'll write you up for 32 individual violations myself"

Direct line of sight to a laser beam (Class IV) being sold as a Class I (fully contained), No interlocks to the electrical cabinets, no interlocks to the working area, un certified pipework for transmission of Oxygen, no blowback arrestor, no intrinsic safety certificate for the gas bearing parts, no built in grounding of the electrical parts via the earth line (on a machine that uses high pressure explosive gasses), the list went on and on....

Direct imports for business use are a nightmare waiting to happen, yes yes I'm sure there will be a load of people who can say "Well my machine arrived and is safe" and I'm sure it is, right up until it gets sold or somebody gets hurt or killed.

A good example is the pic you posted of the external grounding wire on a 220V system....that will NOT pass CE requirements....take what you will from that....

cheers

Dave

[Neil Pabia]

That truly is bad luck. On the bright side, you should now have all the spare parts for your new machine (if they allowed you to keep them).

[Carlos Barros]

That truly is bad luck. On the bright side, you should now have all the spare parts for your new machine (if they allowed you to keep them).

Unfortunately I couldn't keep anything, I had to send all parts for destruction.

Actually I learnt a lesson, and won't buy any other machine directly from manufacturer, being in China or elsewhere outside of EU. I prefer to pay more through an agent/reseller and avoid all the troubles I had for almost a year.

[Bert Kemp]

I really felt bad looking at those pictures of the machine getting crushed.
So what did you get for a new machine pleae don't tell us you got a Triumph