Because of its high brightness and low energy consumption, LED strips should be used in building decoration, advertising light boxes, jewelry display stands and other constant lighting equipment, but what aspects should be considered when choosing LED strips?
1. Look at the solder joints
The LED strips produced by the regular LED strips manufacturer is produced by SMT chip technology, using solder paste and reflow soldering process. Therefore, the solder joints on the LED strips are relatively smooth and the amount of solder is not much, and the solder joints extend from the FPC pads to the LED electrodes in an arc shape. However, the amount of solder in the solder joints of low-quality LED strips is uneven, and there is usually a dot enclosing the solder feet, and at the same time there will be different degrees of tin tips, which is a typical phenomenon of manual soldering.
2. Look at the quality of FPC
FPC is divided into two types: copper clad and rolled copper. The copper foil of the copper clad plate is protruding. If you look closely, you can see it from the connection between the pad and the FPC. The rolled copper is closely integrated with the FPC, and can be bent arbitrarily without the pad falling off. If the copper-clad board is bent too much, the pads will fall off, and the temperature during maintenance will be too high to cause the pads to fall off.
3. Look at the cleanliness of the surface of the LED strips
If the LED strips produced by SMT process is used, the surface cleanliness is very good, and no impurities and stains can be seen. However, if the low-quality LED strips produced by manual welding process, no matter how to clean the surface, there will be stains and cleaning traces, and at the same time, there will be flux and tin slag residues on the FPC surface.
4. Look at the packaging
Regular LED strips will be packaged in anti-static reels, usually 5 meters or 10 meters, and then sealed with anti-static and moisture-proof packaging bags outside. The low-quality LED strips will use recycled reels to save costs, and then there is no anti-static and moisture-proof packaging bag. If you look closely at the reels, you can see that there are marks and scratches left when the labels are removed.
5. Look at the label
There will be printed labels on the regular LED strip packaging bags and reels, not printed labels.
6. Look at the attachment
Regular LED strips will include instructions for use and LED strip specifications in the packaging box, and will also be equipped with LED strip connectors or card holders. However, these accessories are not included in the packaging box of low-quality LED strips, because some manufacturers can save as much as possible after all.
