Omega Pacific Product Safety Advisory Link Cam Inspection Notice & Update June 13, 2007 Omega Pacific is requesting that Link Cam owners inspect their Link Cams for two potential defects recently discovered. As of this posting, the incidents are extremely rare and are not considered widespread, but we feel that it is in the best interest of climbers’ safety to inform the climbing community of the potential for the problem. Should any Link Cam owner wish for us to perform the inspection, we will be happy to do so. Please contact us for information how to prepare the return. In April, we were informed of a situation in which key components of a Link Cam became disassembled after use in the field. Upon receiving the unit back from the climber, our Quality Assurance department immediately launched an investigation to determine the cause and to recommend any appropriate upgrades to our production or quality management processes. Our QA inspectors have determined the cause was an improper rivet in the link assembly during the assembly process. Prior to this incident, we preassembled the links into lobes, riveted them and then moved them into the assembly station. In this instance, one was not riveted but was included in the move to the new station. The QC inspection of the completed cams did not catch the problem. Therefore, we’ve initiated a new inspection procedure of all links/lobes BEFORE they are moved to final assembly. As well, all persons participating in the final QC inspection have been retrained to look for this issue on every single unit. We have no reason to suspect that this is a widespread or repeated problem, but are issuing an inspection notice to the climbing community so that climbers may inspect their Link Cams to ensure that their cams meet proper specifications. Of course, we will be happy to inspect cams for anyone should they wish to send them to us for analysis. However, a very simple test as described below is adequate to determine whether this problem exists with any Link Cam. The test may be applied to either #1 or #2 Link Cams. We request that anyone with cams that fail this test immediately contact us. Should we become aware that this is a larger problem, we will respond accordingly. It should be noted that no accident occurred nor any injuries suffered as a result of this incident. To confirm proper riveting on your Link Cams, follow these steps: 1) Visually inspect each of four rivets per Link Cam—there is one rivet per link assembly—that connect the gray links to the anodized link. The photo below shows the location of a proper rivet. Note that the rivet head is rounded and peened over as per specifications 2) A defective rivet will be visually recognizable by the pristine, sharp edges at its crown. 3) Simply pushing against the rivet from the interior side of the linkage will easily force the rivet from its placement. Please notify us immediately if any cam you inspect exhibits this behavior. During the course of the inspection, we subsequently discovered three units which have a small fissure in the steel linkage of the cam lobes. As unlikely as it sounds, destruct-testing of these units revealed that the defect does NOT reduce the overall strength of the units. In fact, the units we tested failed ABOVE rating. However, since the goods, obviously, do not conform to our specifications, we would like any units with this defect returned for replacement under warranty. The steps necessary to prevent this from recurring have been initiated in response to the first issue. We have used this experience to upgrade our inspection policies and practices as well as to improve the materials flow during production. We take pride in our excellent quality control record and do everything we can to prevent issues like this from occurring. However, the climbing community and our customers can count on us to respond in a prompt, professional manner whenever quality problems do arise. Should there be more action required on our part in response to this inspection notice, we will alert the climbing community. Please contact us with any questions or comments. We can be reached at 800.360.3990 or info@omegapac.com. Michael Lane Sales & Marketing Director info@omegapac.com 800.360.3990 toll-free 509.456.0170 international