How about a circuit breaker containing nothing but a JUMPER WIRE between the line and load sides?

http://www.schneider-electric.co.uk/...2573F3004D040C

That's something else. Money is what separates men from their morals, if they have any morals to begin with.

I read an article about this a couple months back, but these were being smuggled into the US.

http://www.plantservices.com/articles/2008/014.html

The same thing is happening in the bearing industry, it is estimated 10% of bearings worldwide are counterfeit.

Moral of the story, if the price sounds too good, buyer beware and purchase only through a reputable dealer. Not worth risking your life or destroying your machine to save a few bucks.

this is the new cold war.

This thread raises a flag in my mind about all the DEALS on EBay.

Some of them seem to good to be true, maybe this is why they are.

What is WRONG with you guys?

It isn't like they're deliberately shipping poison to the US for folks to take
instead of medicine....

Oh. Wait.



Jim

Well that's a bit disturbing, on top of all the other stuff. Gee Jim, are you implying that this was supplied by the Chinese?

Well, that was what one of the articles linked to claimed. That customs
intercepted a few suitcases full of bogus breakers.

Hmm. Sounds like a band. The Bogus Breakers!



Jim

I guess these breakers were made especially tor the people who put nails or fencing wire into fuse holders.

While the bridged out nature of that breaker is a worry the lack of isolating ability is what will probably get someone killed, it is common practice to isolate a circuit from the breaker, and most electricians test the isolated circuit with a known good tester before working on the circuit but you only have to forget once for something like this to bite you.

Bolts and lifting gear are a real worry, the anti counterfiet organisations seems more concerned about high markup brands in the consumer goods industry, but engineering products are where the real harm can occur.

Always makes me wonder who specifies and orders these components. There may be more than one person to look to when placing blame, and that second person may be closer to home than you'd like to think. Having a faceless distance work force makes it easy to net yourself high profits with improper goods and separate yourself from any blame.

I'm fully open to the idea that there may only be one point of blame and it may be some Chinese guy, but I've also dealt with enough dirty Westerners to know never to trust what I'm told or read until I've seen the ink - and I've had signatures from guys in the US and Canada that aren't worth the paper or ink.

My son bought a tow strap and with it came with two forged cadmium plated eyed lifting hooks which were stamped "China" they had a price sticker for $1.35 on each. There were also two shackles priced at $1.15 although they were nominally 3/8" the eye of the hook was oversize and would not go into the shackle. I went to our local industrial hardware to buy a pair of oval lifting rings to make the connections. These plain 3/8" forged lifting rings in this case made in Canada cost me $9.85 each. which is about what I would have expected for strain rated forged gear.

If those hooks are what they were sold as I will eat my hat! But how many thousands are now out there just waiting to maim or kill someone and what are the government doing to prevent it?

A fake handbag or watch is one thing but lifting tackle and electric circuit breakers are serious business. If I had wanted to open a forge to make this sort of kit in years past half my overhead would have gone to satisfying government inspection procedures. But apparently not today!.

Charles.

What's really 'shocking' is that the mainstream press has
finally caught up to the heparin thing. China says it's
not their fault. The FDA says it'll take them a hundred
years to inspect all the factories in china. China says
they want to be able to inspect our factories. In the
meantime folks have died because the drug has been
adulterated with a low-cost ingredient that keeps the
anti-coagulant properties the same as the pure stuff.

Over-sulfated Chondroitin Sulfate is the term being
tossed about right now. "OSCS" is the acronym. China
says they can't test for it. I guess in all of china
they don't have one FTIR rig.

Jim

"China says they want to be able to inspect our factories."

****

Good timing. Cheap trip now with the devalued dollar.

CB,

The dollar hasn't dropped very much against the Yuan.

We complained when it was tied at 8 to the dollar. It's only up to 7 to the dollar. Cheaper trip, yes, but not nearly as cheap as for a European to come for a vacation.

Cheers,

George

Not to hijack the thread but another area of trouble is the black iron pipe comming out of China.

The threaded ends are not machined correctly and will leak either gas or water. I have heard that if the correct pipe die is used to cut new threads then the pipe is o.k.

Yeah but it was $1.50/10 yards of pipe cheaper to get it made in china than in the US and as a result I got a $100 000 bonus for saving the company a ton of cash

Vice-president of procuement Boris

PS I now work for another company


Note..... the above is in jest.....maybe

I resent that. I took the time to cut a piece of copper rod "nails are not a very good conductor"

Could have saved money using aluminum wire!

Could have saved more money & a lot safer by leaving the plastic insulation in place after stripping out the copper & selling the copper!

Heard a blurb on the radio this morning they are finding lead in dental crowns coming from China. Flipping through stations I caught the very end of it. Searching on the internet the ADA is trying to address the issue.

I went to a local building supply and bought some black pipe for a compressed air system. Didn't notice the made in China sticker until putting it up (more sensitive to that now!). Two sections had cracked welds and all the threads needed to be redone...it went back to the store with a warning to not resell it or I would sit witness to them selling gas pipe with cracks in it. They pulled the stock...but still sell the same crap.

Saw on the news yesterday that the tainted heparin seems to be deliberate (or CNN was just trying to stir things up).

We used to sell custom motorcycle parts from a vendor until we found he was stealing intellectual property and having copies made in Tiawan. People who invented items suddenly started seeing items being sold that they did not make. Just saw a clutch on eBay (item 350055481724 reported) that is a copy and the listing even indicated "Made by V-Twin manufacturing. They are not the inventors of this product, however they are the first to bring it to the public for a great price." Nothing like telling people you stold the idea and undermine the manufacturer by selling it cheaper. Don't know how many stories I have heard repeated where a manufacturer has an irrate customer bring in a faulty copy and have to explain that they didn't make the POS they bought.

I recall when posion got into a few bottles of a popular medicine by a nut case. There was a bigger stir over that then the current Asian counterfeits that have to be taking a toll.