AUSTRALIA : KONICA MINOLTA ISSUES PRODUCT RECALL

[Anonymous]

AUSTRALIA : KONICA MINOLTA ISSUES PRODUCT RECALL
Konica Minolta recently issued a voluntary product recall for certain laser printers and MFPs sold in Australia between June 2010 and April of this year. Affected products include the bizhub C35, bizhub C35P, magicolor 4750DN, and magicolor 3730DN. The firm says that there is a risk “in very rare circumstances” of smoke or fire resulting from an insufficiently insulated duplex unit.

Konica Minolta stated that it is in the process of contacting customers and inspecting and modifying affected printers and MFPs, free of charge. The company urges customers to check the rating label, near the product serial number. Products with a green sticker on the label have already been inspected. For more information, including the serial numbers of affected products and contact information for Konica Minolta, view the Konica Minolta press release.

Obviously, recalls can occur with virtually any product category. There have been other similar recalls for laser printers in the past. In 2008, Samsung had to recall some laser printers sold in Korea and manufactured by Fuji Xerox because of risk of overheating and fire (see article). Fuji Xerox says it had a “monochromatic laser printer fire incident in September 2002.” In the United States, Lexmark (and partners Dell and IBM) had a laser printer product recall in 2004 because of electric shock risk, and in 2002 Brother had to issue a product recall related to a potential fire hazard with its laser printers.

If this latest laser printer product recall remains limited to these specific products and to the Australian market, we expect that the business impact to Konica Minolta will be limited largely to the cost of inspection and service, although it is certainly possible that the firm may have some alarmed and/or disappointed customers in Australia. We will continue to follow notices of such recalls, however, to see if Konica Minolta issues recalls for other regions. That would indicate that this product recall may become a bigger issue, particularly as the affected Konica Minolta products are in the relatively popular A4 color MFP and printer categories.

[Author]

April 20, 2011 at 8:08 AM