June 30, 2026
Anyone who has spent a day extrusion welding inside a tank, a boat hull or a lined reservoir knows what wears you down: the weight of the gear, the awkward angles, and the time lost to servicing motors that have burnt through their brushes.
Those were the conversations we had in June, when Leister’s Head of Plastic Fabrication, Reto Britschgi, travelled from Switzerland to spend 22 to 24 June with our team and our customers.
The week opened with a full day of training and development for the Carr New Zealand team. On the evening of Monday, 22 June we held an Open House in Auckland to launch the WELDPLAST 300 extruder alongside the HOT JET 302-A and 500-A hand tools. Customers came from right across the plastic welding and fabrication trade, and after Reto’s demonstration everyone had time to pick the tools up and run them properly. Reto welcomed every piece of feedback, good and otherwise — that is exactly how Leister keeps improving what it builds.
What makes this generation different is the brushless drive and blower motors. Less to wear out means longer service intervals and lower running costs over the life of the tool. The WELDPLAST 300 weighs 7 kg, puts out up to 3.2 kg/h on 4 mm rod, and carries an LED work light for the dark corners where this work usually happens. The HOT JET 302-A and 500-A share the same brushless approach in a hand tool, with stepless temperature control and an eco-mode that drops the air flow when the tool is set down.
Following the Monday event, Reto and our Sales Manager Matt Allan took the WELDPLAST 300 to customers in Auckland and Christchurch. The response was consistent — the output, the LED work lights, and the prospect of years of use without maintenance costs all landed well.
Our thanks to Leister Switzerland for sending Reto and his 29 years of knowledge our way, and to Dayle ITM for the loan of the BBQ.
