Nowadays, the LED light strip market is mixed, and the prices of regular manufacturers' products and cottage workshop products are very different. This difference is multi-faceted. If you identify the quality of LED strips from a professional perspective, I am afraid that many customers do not have this ability. But we can make a preliminary identification from the simple appearance, and we can basically tell whether the quality is good or bad.
The appearance is more intuitive and one of the easiest ways to identify, mainly from the following aspects.
1. Look at the solder joints. The LED light strips produced by regular LED light strip manufacturers are produced by SMT patch process, solder paste and reflow soldering. Therefore, the solder joints on the LED strip 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.
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 phenomenon of pad falling off. If the copper-clad plate is bent too much, the pads will fall off, and if the temperature is too high during maintenance, the pads will also fall off.
3. Look at the cleanliness of the surface of the LED strip. The LED light strip produced by the SMT process has a very good surface cleanliness, and no impurities and stains can be seen. The fake LED light strip produced by hand welding process will leave stains and cleaning marks on its surface no matter how it is cleaned.
4. Look at the packaging. Regular LED strips will be packaged in anti-static reels, 5 meters in a roll or 10 meters in a roll, and the outside of the package is sealed with an anti-static and moisture-proof packaging bag. The copycat version of the LED light strip uses a recycled reel without anti-static and moisture-proof packaging. If you look closely at the reel, you can see that there are traces and scratches left when the label is removed.
5. Look at the label. Regular LED light strip packaging bags and reels will have printed labels on them, not printed labels.
6. Look at the attachments. Regular LED light strips will be accompanied by instructions for use and light strip specifications in the packaging box, and will also be equipped with LED light strip connectors or card holders; while the knockoff LED light strip packaging box does not have these accessories, because After all, some manufacturers can still save money.