Customer Returns Procedure
We would like to advise you of our procedure that we have in place concerning the investigation of potential cable faults. The costs involved in doing a full analysis of “faulty cables”, in order to establish the reason for failure, can be both expensive and time consuming. Of the number of possible faulty products that are returned, a very high percentage of these, when investigated, are discovered not to be manufacturing faults.
Generally, there are six (6) modes of failure that can occur. These can be grouped as follows:
- Incorrect system design/product choice
- Incorrect, or poor installation technique
- Process upset/change
- Mechanical abuse/stress on the cable
- Environmental (such as corrosive elements in contact with the cable, etc)
- Inherant manufacturing fault
The Customer, whether they are Designer, Supplier, Installer or End User, need to satisfy themselves, ahead of returning products to us, that items 1-5 above are not the cause of failure and that you have a realistic concern that there is potentially a manufacturing fault. Faults created as a result of damage to the product whilst in transit to you are normally detected upon receipt of goods. Design, installation and manufacturing faults are normally determined during system commissioning.
If the system has been operating for a significant period of time without a problem, it is generally down to a change in process conditions. This can be environmental conditions or mechanical abuse including steam cleaning of the system which takes the temperature above that of the product’s maximum exposure rating.
It is necessary to understand the system design and evaluate the potential cause of the fault, since any analysis that we undertake may not determine the actual cause, it may only confirm the symptom of the fault. (A perfect looking sample with no obvious mechanical damage may have no power output, but, whilst we can determine it has been overheated and the matrix is destroyed, we cannot tell you the reason why).
Please note that HTL self-regulating heating cables cannot overheat themselves to the point of destruction, unlike some other manufacturer’s products. HTL self-regulating products are inherently temperature safe.
After progressing the matter yourselves, if you should still consider that there is potentially a manufacturing problem, we first need a description of the fault and/or a reason why a fault is suspected. We also need full product/system design, application and installation details before proceeding with any investigation, in order to first eliminate the likely causes other than an inherent manufacturing fault. We essentially repeat the evaluation process that you have undertaken, ahead of analysis.
Therefore, please let us have details of the system design and product choice, together with any information from site, including commissioning and post installation test data. This can be achieved by completing the downloadable PDF document and submitting your information using the ‘Submit by Email’ button.
Contact email: [email protected]
Once we have received the requested information, we will if necessary issue a quotation detailing the appropriate test work, together with a pro-forma invoice. On receipt of payment, we shall commence our investigation. If failure is proven to be due to a manufacturing defect, the payment will be refunded accordingly and appropriate action taken to repair / replace the product in accordance with our terms and conditions of sale – provided of course that the products are still under warranty.